Ioana Stepanov
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…”Her lust for rough, rugged images and unpolished surfaces explains her preference for sandstone, for a well consolidated manner of expression, using classic shapes that pursue a strict goal. While for centuries, the ceramic was used to reflect a wide range of images, in her works, Ioana Stepanov focuses on language basics. Plain beauty and gesture breathe life into the shapeless matter, containing it however within a severe geometry. She experiments beyond the decorative image, with the problems raised by the material itself, the expression of volume, playing with surface, details, while their association sets the imagination free. We discover that she efficiently uses fragments, overlapping and layers; all these unexpectedly make us think of shapes related to image archeology. Her works are a mixture of new and old, natural and artificial, robust structures and subtle details, suggestions whereby this chameleonic material insinuates a soft tissue, the precision of stone, at the same time being capable of becoming anything else. What is to be done when being confronted with it? By a provocative, harsh and aggressive play, it offers the chance of expressing the artistic emotion. Ioana Stepanov meditates between endless possibilities and a critical spirit which causes many of her attempts to remain unfinished…”.
Maria - Magdalena Crisan, art critic, 2002 |
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