Mind Set Art Center is honored to launch “Woman, Scaffolding”, the latest solo exhibition of Ana Maria Micu. This will be Micu’s first show since her 2021 exhibit, “Objects Must be Comfortable”, and her fifth at the gallery. This latest showing consists of more than 20 of Micu’s newest artworks, including paintings, sketches, murals and animation.
Micu has illuminated the core idea of this show with a metaphor in her artist statement, saying the show is about “a female character rising to reach a higher place from the murky, earthly, and vegetal depth of her bed.” The idea originates from the artist’s home and studio, a space that she inhabits from where emotions, memories and imagination are generated. The idea came to the artist when she watched “The Agony and the Ecstasy” (1965) in which one scene struck her: as Michelangelo was struggling to paint, he laid on his back, climbed on top of a wood scaffolding, and paints poured into his eyes. Micu connects these memories to her recent observations, and she also discovers the only place in her studio that was yet to be used for painting: her ceiling. She therefore made a hand-drawn animation of the process by which she moves two pieces of furniture together in order to climb up and paint on the ceiling.
Many paintings in this exhibition focus on the plants that grow inside Micu’s home studio, which serves as both her living and creative space. The painting-within-a-painting on her wall and her potted plants all reflect her pure and simple creative effort within a limited space. In “Woman, Scaffolding”, three particular paintings, in which Micu portrays the floor, the table and the ceiling, highlight how she has intertwined the concept of time and space during life and work. They exemplify the process by the which an artist transcends the content of daily creation into art. In other paintings, Micu turns her attention to the potted plants and she personifies their growth and withering as parts of the circle of life. In “the demolition … daylight figure prominently”, a plump tomato is juxtaposed next to withered leaves, their sharp contrast hints at the passing of time; in “to sleep. And … As you compost”, the plant exhibits many emotions and is the personification of the artist; in “Personified. Katie … rest”, the plants are like theatre actors on stage, exuding an intense, dramatic energy.
Micu makes a conscious effort to observe her surroundings and to explore the interiority of her creative process. In her dialogue with art theoretician Vlad IONESCU (PXL MAD/UHasselt, Belgium), the pair has explored the topic in depth. Vlad IONESCU said, “The exterior world will always dispute interiority. And interiority will always fashion a temporary, mobile, flexible shield.” Micu responded to the observation with the following, “Through conceptual processes like this, I’ve learned that my decisions are not only a product of inspiration and creativity, but also of vast sets of external circumstances that are both in and out of my control and awareness. A key aspect of my practice is trying to understand these mechanics. Art today is a consumption of non-renewable energy. And I would like to think about where this energy comes from, how is consumed in me, and what I do afterwards, when I wake up empty. It seems that it has nothing to do with the way things used to be or how they should be.”
About the artist
Ana Maria Micu (b. 1979) is based in Botoșani. She works primarily with painting, connecting two or more images with reference to personal experience and her close environment, in non-linear presentations of scenarios she identifies as minor acts of living. Micu graduated from the MFA of the University of Art and Design of Cluj-Napoca in Romania in 2004. In 2011, Micu’s works were at the Fourth Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art. Her 2020 painting, “workers, will still be … to say” has been collected by the National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC) in Bucharest, Romania. In 2022, Micu held her solo exhibition “Left Hand to Distant View” at MNAC.
