Art Encounters 2017 Exhibitions:
I work, therefore Iʼm not

Liliana Basarab (b. 1979) is a visual artist currently based in Bucharest, who began her career in Iași in early 2000. Her socially engaged practice employs a variety of media including performance, sculpture, drawing, workshops and video.

Selected exhibitions: Talent is not democratic, art is not luxury, Borderline Art Space, Iași (2016, solo); Girls with ideas [boys and paintings], Lateral ArtSpace, Cluj-Napoca (2016); In Times of Hope and Unrest. Critical Art from Iași, MNAC, Bucharest (2015, with Bogdan Pălie); Vaasa 20X0, Vaasa (2015, with Tuomo Väänänen); LUCK /Do I feel lucky? Do ya, punk?, Glosna Gallery, Poznan (2012, solo); Truth/s, apARTE Gallery, Iași (2011, solo); Truth/s’, DVAC, Dayton Visual Art Centre, Dayton, Ohio (2011, solo); Accidents, mutation and mistakes, MORA Gallery, Bucharest (2010, solo).

Liliana Basarab focuses her artistic work on social involvement and immediate reality. In her project, Talent is not democratic, the fable Greierele și Furnica (The Cricket and the Ant) becomes the perfect pretext for illustrating the diverse kinds of the sometimes contradictory reception of works of art in society. In the artist’s ceramic compositions, the two characters take up messages belonging to different taste-makers which explain their view on the status and responsibilities of the artist. The collection of statements is periodically updated and displays a wide range of assumed positions on the subject, according to mentality, political orientation, social status, etc.

Images:

1. Liliana Basarab, Portrait

2. Liliana Basarab, TALENT IS NOT DEMOCRATIC, ART IS NOT A LUXURY (The Grasshopper and the Ant) (2016-2017), glazed ceramic, dimensions variable, photo credits: Liliana Basarab