At GLORIÆ Art Gallery in Craiova, the exhibition “Sortir du noir”, a solo show by the artist Petru Lucaci, curated by Ruxandra Demetrescu, will open to the public. The title, Sortir du noir, explicitly references the book of the same name by Georges Didi-Huberman and highlights the formal and conceptual concerns of the visual artist across two distinct projects: chiaroscuro and the human body.
The opening will take place on Friday, March 6, 2026, at 6:00 PM, in the presence of the artist and the curator.
The project stands under the sign of revisitation and synthesis: revisitation, as Petru Lucaci returns to an essential theme that marked a trajectory begun more than three decades ago, when black was the dominant color, visible in several series (“Noctumbre,” “Alb/Negru,” “Night Shadows,” “Clarobscur,” “Black-based Cocktail”). Concerned with the possibilities and limits of painting, Lucaci has consistently challenged the traditional “parts of painting”: drawing, chiaroscuro, color, spatial construction, and, not least, the history embedded within the image.
The exhibition retrospectively presents, in the first gallery room, three large polyptychs from the “Clarobscur” series created in 2012. In the recent works from the same cycle, displayed in the last two rooms of the gallery, the insinuation of the body (always female) within an abstracted formal universe marks a moment of synthesis, paradoxically intensifying a deeply contradictory visual staging: the viewer may feel unsettled by the masculine manipulation of the female body, disturbed by fragmentation and disintegration, or, conversely, prompted toward a broader and more generous reflection on the vulnerability of the human being under the excesses of contemporary society.
The next step, the “exit from the surface,” materializes in a three-dimensional experiment, visible both in the series of objects and reliefs made of layered wood painted black — exhibited in the pavilion — and in the most recent works in the show: fiberglass reliefs covered with acrylic spray paints — exhibited in the gallery’s arcade room.
According to curator Ruxandra Demetrescu, “the visual spectacle proposed by Petru Lucaci in this exhibition marks an emblematic moment in his artistic activity. I recalled a phrase from Sortir du noir: commenting on Son of Saul, the film by László Nemes, Georges Didi-Huberman stated that ‘the image that bursts out of black has its own tactile limits.’ The issue of the boundary between the visual and the tactile, between black and chromatic exuberance — which ‘emerges from black’ — also holds a profound spiritual significance for Petru Lucaci, to be rediscovered and deciphered through the viewer’s probing and patient gaze.”
Quoting the artist: “Chiaroscuro becomes a way of artistically (re)defining an uncertain, undecided world, always searching for something and someone — a world of those at the margins, at the periphery, seeking ‘light’ or fleeing from ‘light.’”
Petru Lucaci (b. 1956, Arad) is a visual artist, Professor PhD at the Universitatea Națională de Arte București, curator, and a central figure in Romanian cultural management. Since 2010, he has served as President of the Uniunea Artiștilor Plastici din România and Director of Arta Magazine. He graduated in 1982 from the Institutul de Arte Plastice Nicolae Grigorescu, Painting Department.
He earned a PhD in Visual Arts in 2006 with the thesis “On Black”. His exhibition activity includes participation in over 250 group exhibitions in Romania and abroad, as well as more than 45 solo exhibitions. His artistic practice encompasses painting, graphic art, photography, object/installation, happening, and new media. In 2004, he was awarded the Order of Cultural Merit, Officer rank, Category C, and in 2006 the Romanian Artists’ Union granted him the Excellence Award.
The exhibition can be visited until May 8, 2026, on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, between 12:00 PM and 4:00 PM. GLORIÆ Art Gallery is located in the historic center of Craiova, at 49 Alexandru Macedonski Street.
