Scars from Soft Blades represents the most recent body of work by artist Ada Muntean, bringing together graphic and painterly compositions conceived specifically for the space of Himera Gallery.

The opening of the exhibition Scars from Soft Blades will take place at Himera Gallery in Timișoara on Saturday, March 14, 2026, at 7:00 PM, in the presence of the artist.

“The project acts formally and conceptually as an intersection between imagined universes, memory and the subconscious. The title functions as a self-conscious oxymoron: blades – associated with cutting and destruction – are reconfigured as soft, fragile, almost affectionate. In this approach, the wound no longer signifies just pain but becomes an instrument of memory, a place of metamorphosis and transformation.

A suggestive analysis could be made between remembering the past (“the scar”) and experiencing the present (“a soft blade”) with which we continually negotiate and flirt. The image is not simply limited to fiction or documenting reality but constitutes a hybrid: a weave of flashbacks from past experiences, juxtaposed over present fragments. This visual construction acts as an emotional archaeology in which the past and the present coexist, creating a personal imaginary.

The compositions ripple subtly between lucidness and dreaming, the sensory and conceptual dimensions. The central elements in the artwork gravitate around a perishable reality, representing small and precious fragments of the transient. Scars from Soft Blades do not explore suffering in itself, but the process of acknowledgement that follows. The artistic approach pays special attention to the surface’s materiality and value, understood both as a physical and as an active media, capable of striking an emotional reaction. The viewer is invited not only to contemplate but to experience the proximity, the desire for closeness and to establish an almost tactile relationship with art. In this context, the surface ceases to simply be an exterior layer and becomes a space to negotiate between gaze, body and memory.

A key element in the series is the way in which memory is presented visually. The most intense memories are often connected to painful experiences, and this tension is plastically transfigured through the metaphor of the scar. If the memory of the past can be understood as a scar, then existence itself becomes a “soft blade”: the constant presence we permanently negotiate with, swaying between attraction and the inevitable confrontation of the marks it leaves behind.

Scars from Soft Blades explores a personal perspective on confronting reality and how we interpret it, focusing on the constant tension and relaxation of the existential limits we are tempted to cross. In this framework, the exhibition creates spaces for introspection and dialogue between the visible and the invisible, outlining an intimate universe where memory and experience are reconfigured through sensation and reflection.” (curatorial text)

The exhibition can be visited between March 14 and May 30, 2026. Free admission.