Agorafobia

Through illusory windows, picto-objects, or reinterpreted objects, I question certain fashionable values and applaud the cultural principles hidden within the work of art, while trying to decipher the hypothesis that artistic nonconformism, as a form of expression or attitude, contains a veiled spiritual harmony rather than frivolity. Beyond this, it is an opposition to dilettantism in the visual arts, to mass thinking—common, permissive, universally accepted—where the distinction between acceptance of those with shortcomings and acceptance of those who generate shortcomings is blurred. Philotinia is not the same as unconditional encouragement, but rather an investment in those without chances who demonstrate a will to evolve through work. It points to study, discernment, introspection, documentation, reflection, creative restlessness, and artistic intelligence.

Art does not have a demonstrative role. It is the result of an amalgam of ordinary situations that converge in the creator’s soul in a magical moment, revealed solely for the purpose of communication, on scientific-emotional grounds, akin to philosophical truth. Those who pursue another purpose can only rejoice in themselves. Thus, from a social standpoint, I believe we all have equal rights, but not equal merits. Everything depends on the value of community involvement, not on personal interest.

Through the window, seeing the crowd fighting, each climbing over the other to reach the top for the eternal nothing and the ephemeral concrete, I fall more in love each day with my dormant idols, who, in order to become universal, embraced solitude, knowing how to distinguish between popularity and celebrity.

My windows seem like opaque stained glass, invaded by the clutter of my studio—dull objects whose claustrophobia struggles for release, or at least to reach the outer side of the window, where the viewer stands. Once they gain independence, they will no longer be my burden, but that of others. Spiritual…

Ion Anghel, June 2024

Visual artist Ion Anghel, born on February 17, 1973, in Bucharest, Romania, studied at the Nicolae Tonitza High School of Fine Arts, Bucharest (1984–1991), then at the Academy of Arts in Bucharest, Painting Department, under Professor Florin Ciubotaru (1991–1997). Between 1998–1999, he pursued a master’s degree at the University of Arts in Bucharest, specializing in Art Pedagogy. In 2007, he earned his PhD in Visual Arts with the thesis: From Object to Objectualism in Contemporary Visual Arts.

Since 1997, he has been a member of the Union of Fine Artists of Romania, and since 2008 he has been a lecturer at the University of Arts in Bucharest, Painting Department.

From 1999 to the present, the artist has organized more than twenty-four solo exhibitions in Bucharest, Constanța, Buzău, Mogoșoaia, Sibiu, Târgu Mureș, Bistrița, Galați, Târgoviște, Cluj Napoca, Deva, Tulcea, Chișinău, and others.

Ion Anghel actively participates in numerous group exhibitions both in Romania and abroad: Valentigny, France; Romanian Cultural Institute, Venice, Italy; Romanian Academy, Rome, Italy; Inter-Balkan Symposium, Samothraki, Greece; First International Plein-air Meeting of Painters, Stary Sącz, Poland; Ithaki—exhibition and creative camp, Municipality of Vathi, Vathi Cultural Center, Ithaka, Greece; Ex-libris Brâncuși, Trakya University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Edirne, Turkey; Romanian Cultural Institute, Lisbon, Portugal, among others.

He is a founding member of the Salmastru Group (2002), founder of the Catacomba UNA Gallery (2011), and co-founder of the UNARTE The Grand Gallery (2012).

Among the most important awards and distinctions granted to the artist are: Artexpo Prize, Special Prize Fleur d’Eau, First Prize at the Accents and Impressions Painting Competition, Apollo Gallery, Bucharest; Youth Prize of UAP Romania; Excellence Award for Young Talents granted by the National Union of Romanian Employers; Special Prize, Danubius International Print Biennale; Mihail Grecu Commemorative Medal, awarded by the Union of Fine Artists of the Republic of Moldova; Mihail Grecu Prize, awarded by UAP Moldova; and the Painting Prize of UAP Romania, among others.