View all artworks by Cătălin Iurian

Cătălin Iurian just graduated a Master’s program in painting at the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca. In his dissertation work, he delved into an exploration of abstract expressionism and gestural painting, in which he increasingly found his voice. His works are the result of this journey, influenced by Hegelian philosophy and the quest for authenticity. (Bogdan Bolboacă)

His works aim to serve as genuine spaces for introspection, providing an opportunity for both contradictions and reconciliation.They prove that chaos is not the opposite of order but rather a necessary prerequisite for order to gain meaning and substance. In this sense, the energy of the pictorial gestures is not arbitrary but guided by a profound intention to explore the process through which understanding emerges.

The strokes of intense black, applied with energetic brushwork, create a fragmented visual rhythm dominated by stark contrasts. This seemingly chaotic organization enhances the free interplay between materiality and immateriality, forming part of a process of negation and disintegration of superficial order that give rise to a deeper visual structure. The viewer becomes part of this process, challenged to uncover a hidden order, an internal logic that transcends the initial chaos and culminates in a higher synthesis.

Thus, his works become a visual meditation on the journey of consciousness, a dialogue between materiality and idea, between the sensory and the universal. They represent an invitation not only to aesthetic contemplation but also to philosophical reflection on becoming, conflict, and reconciliation within human existence.