In his solo exhibition “Get Over It” at Meron Gallery in Cluj-Napoca, visual artist Sebastian Nasta proposes a conceptual and visual incursion into the area of tension between vulnerability and survival, between appearance and essence, and between personal experience and the collective discourse of resilience. The five oils on canvas works are constructed in the key of figurative hyperrealism, but they intentionally exceed their technical boundary, activating a subtle aesthetic and symbolic problematic.
The human body, especially the face, becomes in this series a space of psychological projection. The figures are treated with remarkable formal rigor, but what is of interest is less the resemblance to the model and more the evocative force of the gaze. The characters are captured in a static register, and the presence of thermal insulation foil – a material of rescue and protection – introduces a dialectic between interiority and exteriorization, between exposure and camouflage.
One of the central works in the exhibition is the portrait of Deliric, a musician and multidisciplinary artist, depicted with his mouth covered in foil. This image opens up multiple levels of reading, from the reference to self-censorship and the pressure of social discourses to the impossibility of communication in contexts marked by silence or restraint.
The work is all the more relevant as Deliric also signs the poetic text that accompanies the exhibition – a literary intervention that functions as an interpretive device. The repetition of the verse “You get over only after you’ve been through too much” serves as a key to reading but also as an invitation to introspection, to acknowledging the wounds and transforming them into strength.
Born in Transylvania, Sebastian Nasta is a graduate of the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca, having previously attended the “Sabin Drăgoi” College of Arts in Arad. Originally from Pianu de Sus, the artist remembers his modest beginnings: drawing on any available surface, encouraged by his teacher. Today, that impulse to observe and meticulously render the world around him translates into a mature artistic language, marked by pictorial hyperrealism, discreet symbolism and a constant concern for the expressiveness of the human face. For Sebastian Nasta, detail becomes revelation, and each brushstroke is carefully calibrated to communicate not only the form but also the emotional tension of the subject. Faces, always at the center of attention, are for him spaces of revelation, of unspoken questions and answers.
At a time when Romanian art is intensely exploring the areas of installation, performance, or pure concept, Sebastian Nasta proposes a conscious attention to painting – not as a nostalgic refuge but as a relevant tool for visual and existential reflection. He joins the new wave of European artists who are revalidating the figurative image as a means of accessing themes such as memory, human fragility, identity and the search for meaning.
The exhibition can be visited at Meron Gallery until April 21, 2025. Entrance to Meron Gallery is free.
