The exhibition “The Art of Being Alive. The Diary of a Painted Life” welcomes the public starting November 7, with the opening event taking place at 7:00 PM in the Kulterra Gallery and will be open until November 30.

“The Art of Being Alive. The Diary of a Painted Life” is a retrospective dedicated to the artist Ecaterina Vrana, presented by Kulterra Gallery and Rădulescu Galleries. This exhibition brings together works from all stages of her creation: from the energy and playfulness of her early years, to the fragility and introspection of the final canvases. Together, they form a painted biography — the story of a woman who knew how to transform vulnerability into strength and pain into light.

There are artists who dedicate their life to art, and artists who turn art into life. Ecaterina Vrana belonged to the latter — someone who didn’t paint simply to create images, but to keep breathing. In a world demanding explanations and concepts, she replied with silence, color, and courage. For her, the art of being alive was not a metaphor, but a discipline of the soul.

When we look at her works today, we see each brushstroke as an unspoken emotion, each color as a form of survival. This is not painting in search of beauty, but of truth — a truth sometimes tender, sometimes harsh, but always deeply human. Her art is a confession without words, a visual diary of existence, written in hues that speak where language fails.

Ecaterina Vrana did not paint themes, but states of being. Her figures appear at times innocent, at times ironic, and her painterly gesture is often a blend of juvenility and clarity. She never followed trends, but her own inner logic — that of a woman who searches, who forgives, who laughs at her own fate. Her humor was gentle, even when her painting spoke about suffering.

Ecaterina Vrana’s art is profoundly contemporary precisely because it is timeless. It does not rely on context or theory, but on honesty. In an age when everything seems constructed, she reminds us that authenticity cannot be faked. What endures in her work is not only its beauty, but the brave vulnerability of a woman who never stopped being alive — even when life hurt.

This exhibition is a celebration, but also an act of restitution. “The Art of Being Alive. The Diary of a Painted Life” is an invitation to intimacy and reflection: a journey through light, color, and silence, in which painting becomes an act of emotional survival. For Ecaterina Vrana, to paint meant to be. And to be — meant to love, to fight, and to hope.

In the postscript, Alexandru Rădulescu shares: “I met Ecaterina Vrana through Mrs. Pârvutoiu, her aunt, a close family friend. From the very first moment you knew she was an artist: she had an unmistakable presence, a look that made you both curious and uneasy.
I was fascinated by her visual language — a unique combination of strength, humor, and melancholy. I was used to collecting established modern artists, but I made an exception for her. Ecaterina Vrana was the first contemporary artist I truly collected — and understood not only through her paintings, but through the humanity within them.

In recent years, there was a sadness around her, a fragility translated into color. She painted, wrote, and fought the illness, but never showed her pain. She possessed a serene dignity — a silence that said everything.
Most of the works exhibited here come from my personal collection, gathered over time, from the desire to keep her story alive.
This exhibition is more than a retrospective — it is a gesture of gratitude. Ecaterina Vrana’s art is not just a memory, but a lesson about fragility, femininity, and the joy of living — even when it hurts.”