IOMO Gallery has announced the opening of the exhibition “Aprons, Lipstick and Everything Unsaid”, a duo show that brings together works created by artists Ioana Băltan and Arina Bican. The opening takes place on July 10, from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM.
“This exhibition brings together two distinct artistic approaches that explore interior states through hyper-staged, symbolically charged environments. Employing glossy surfaces, domestic objects, and stylized figures, the works examine forms of psychological tension embedded in the everyday. Beneath a polished visual language—marked by synthetic textures and controlled compositions—unfolds a fragile emotional terrain shaped by repetition, control, and muted anxiety.
There is something seductively glossy about the scenes in these works—mirrors, chrome surfaces, silky fabrics, pastel palettes, flawless skin. At first glance, the imagery draws us in with its smooth finish and almost obsessive attention to detail. But soon, tension begins to build. Faces appear in appliances. Bodies bend into awkward roles. Lipstick tubes are broken, scattered like emptied capsules. Familiar objects—such as irons, toasters, phones, and alarm clocks—begin to feel uncanny.
This atmosphere of polished anxiety defines “Aprons, Lipstick and Everything Unsaid”. Across these works, two distinct visual languages converge into a single emotional frequency: a quiet, persistent unease that takes the shape of routines, repetitions, and silent expectations. The pieces linger and hum with internal pressure—an invisible script played out through rituals of appearance and caretaking.
Behind their playfully rendered surfaces, the works speak in a code of symbols: alarms set at five-minute intervals, a lipstick trail smearing down the wall, a reflection that stares back from the edge of a silver bowl. The cartoonish precision and synthetic textures aren’t there to entertain—they’re compositional traps, mimicking the seductive order we construct to hold our inner dissonance in place.
In this world, the self is observed and observing, caught in an endless cycle of preparation and repair. The body becomes a placeholder in a staged interior. The mind loops—Did I unplug the iron? Am I still present, or just performing presence? The home is not a sanctuary but a tightly controlled set, where the tension between external polish and internal unrest plays out in muted but relentless gestures.
Rather than declaring a message or drawing clear lines between intention and meaning, the exhibition thrives in ambiguity. It doesn’t point fingers or resolve contradictions. It lets them breathe. The works resist narrative closure and instead map a territory where emotion becomes object, where aesthetics are both armor and echo, and where what’s most urgent is rarely said out loud.
Aprons, Lipstick and Everything Unsaid captures a state of being that is hyper-aware, self-curated, and internally frayed. Not a scream, but a murmur behind the mirror. A presence that’s almost too composed to be fully comfortable.” (curatorial text)
Ioana Băltan (b. 1993, Dragomirești, Dâmbovița) lives and works in London. She attended the National University of Arts, Bucharest, where she obtained a BA degree in painting in 2015. The same year, Băltan obtained the Teaching Training Department’s BA degree issued by the same institution. She continued her studies at The Brera Fine Arts Academy in Milan with a scholarship and got an MA Degree in Strategies of Creation in Painting, released by the National University of Arts, Bucharest.
Băltan’s paintings reveal her strong preoccupation with contemporary approaches to the female figure. Her large-scale compositions are thought of as a body of visual research on portraying feminine archetypes with a strong focus on beauty standards /and body image on social media. In her work, she captures the contrast between the image of contemporary glamour and the soft brutality of beauty standards. The idealised female figures are often placed between luxurious settings and deranged tables with broken make-up and pills, highlighting the violence women subject their bodies to in order to attain physical perfection.
Arina Bican (b. 1991, Bucharest) is a visual artist whose work explores themes such as femininity, cultural memory, and everyday anxieties. A graduate of the National University of Arts in Bucharest, specializing in Mural Art (Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees), Arina Bican combines painting, ceramics, and drawing to create works that reflect on feminine identity and the symbolism of braided hair.
In her recent practice, Bican focuses on small, repetitive fears — obsessive questions about safety, control, or failure — that transform the domestic space, seemingly familiar, into a terrain of inner tension. Household objects become witnesses to these states, imbued with fragile lucidity and personal sensitivity.
A member of the Romanian Union of Visual Artists, she has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, both nationally and internationally.
The exhibition can be visited at the IOMO gallery (29 Băiculești Street, Plastics Complex, Bucharest) until August 10, 2025.
