The Cosmic House presents the solo exhibition “Petrichor” signed by Ioan de Moisa, whose artistic practice reflects on the relationship between form and content. An adept of abstract painting, in his compositions the distinction between figure and background fades almost completely.

“Visually organized in two distinct and successive typologies, seen as a biographical consequence, the melancholic emptiness of the Transylvanian hilly landscape, respectively the lush and isotropic vegetation of the exotic south of Bali or Togo, the paintings are charged with an anxious intensity, in which both the circular hills or the cloistered vertical tropical forests, are organized in the image plane by contrasts of pairs in complementary colors, this ensuring a chromatic tension of the image.

With a true organizational horror vacui, Ioan de Moisa seeks a unitary way of notation that can be used regardless of the images integrated into the background, in which it is easy for us to sort the pairs of complementary colors that structure it, thus making the composition vibrate and expand the field visually, thus ordering our gaze to never stop at a fixed point, like the logic of the video camera.

Petrichor is a patented term in the English language, in the field of chemistry, which, starting from the Greek “blood of the stones”, denotes the smell given off in the air by rain falling on dry land. It is produced by a molecule called ‘geosmin’. I bring up this element, because I think it is closely related to the nature of the two typologies of proposed landscapes – the Transylvanian autumnal rain, respectively the sun-dried earth of the exotic south – as well as to the mineral quality of the chromatic treatment.” – fragment of the exhibition text signed by Horaţiu Lipot.

The exhibition can be visited until May 28, 2023 at the gallery in General Eremia Grigorescu Street, no. 106.

Ioan de Moisa (b. 1989) studied painting at the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca, BA and MA, after graduating from the “Aurel Popp” Arts High School in Satu Mare.

De Moisa participated in numerous group exhibitions, including On regarde beaucoup, at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Rennes, France, in 2011 and the Combined Works exhibition, together with Irina Dumitrașcu, at the Fabrica de Pensule in Cluj-Napoca, in 2014, and collaborated with other artists to create captivating artwork. In 2007, he received the Primus inter Pares award, during an art residency held in Gura Humorului.

The Cosmic House is a cultural laboratory that supports groups of independent artists, while also aiming to offer the public innovative artistic productions in fields like music, dance, theatre, film and visual arts.