Cristina
Calinoiu

Cristina grew up in Romania’s post-communist years, in the capital city, Bucharest. With busy working parents, she and her sister searched for ways to spend their time and entertain themselves. When they weren’t in school or playing with other kids, they used to create all kinds of fun games for themselves. As a teenager, Cristina realized that she liked drawing, so she used the art books in her parents’ library as an inspiration. She started by copying the old masters, then drawing her own feet, hands or face, and later drawing jewelry or pop artists.

Cristina describes herself as a creator. She always looked for and got involved in any creative project that she could find, be it advertising materials or home decorations. Following on this single enduring thread, in the summer of 2022, Cristina finally started to study art, attending the Mastery Program at Milan Art Institute. In her paintings, the image is composed of multiple thin layers that seem to reveal the traces of the past that lie beneath any single moment in time. She believes that anything we see is just the tip of an iceberg built atop memories and experiences. She says no to nothing in her process, charcoal, collage, sprays, markers, oils, they all find their way on her canvas and combine for an eclectic style.

Cristina’s work is an abundance of color and texture. In her tiny studio, magic and wizardry happen as she creates vibrant, surreal, sometimes absurd images. She draws her inspiration from the natural world, evoking the rare and the endangered, the mysterious and the misunderstood. She speaks of fears and dreams, and of hope for liberation. It’s like watching a puzzle being made, when looking at her work, and yet, one doesn’t know how this will look in the end.