BIO
Ada Muntean (b. 1987) lives and works in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. She graduated from the Graphics Department of the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca in 2009, where she later completed her MA in 2011 and earned a PhD in Visual Arts in 2019. She is currently a lecturer in the Pedagogy of the Visual and Decorative Arts program within the Painting Department. Ada Muntean’s artistic practice approaches the issue of contemporary identity, self, ego and the body-society relationship. In her vision, human bodies describe a familiar reality without delimiting it by certainty: from a series of possible human typologies/characters, to the appearance of a culture/society and to the confession of a personal history – these conclude a visual-plastic series intended to raise questions and not necessarily answer concretely about the nature of contemporary human. The ambiguous and transitory identity poses visually suggest a disintegration, a dematerialization of the body, and ideationally emphasize existential decadence. Her compositions question the receiver’s ability to find the represented subject, but preserve a deliberate mystery by eliminating the narrative character and descriptive portraiture. Finally, her artistic discourse is built around the experiences and challenges of contemporary man by exploring multiple mediums and forms of representation, from painting to drawing, photography, video, and installation.
CV
SOLO SHOWS:
2025: Scars from Soft Blades, Himera Gallery, Timișoara
2024: Lacrimarium. Suspended Memories, curator: Alexandra Runcan, Museum of Contemporary Art, Brukenthal Museum, Sibiu
2022: Fragments from a Life I Don’t Remember, Camera K’ARTE Târgu Mureș
2022: Mediating Illusion. The Temptation to Exist, Estopia Art Gallery Lugano
2021: Réalités corporelles: des identités incertaines, French Cultural Institute Cluj-Napoca
2020: Corporealities. Uncertain Bodies, Estopia Art Gallery Bucharest, Romania
2018: Blackout. [Follow The White Rabbit], NEW NOW art space Frankfurt
2018: SABOTAGE: Deconstructing The Unforeseen, Camera, Centre of Interest Cluj-Napoca
2017: Fluid Identity, FIVE PLUS Art Gallery, Vienna, Austria
2017: Self. Perceive/Deceive, Nano Gallery, Centre of Interest, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
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GROUP SHOWS:
2025: The Past is a Very Insistent Voice, Himera Gallery, Timișoara
2024: Vertebrae Mundi, curator Raluca Ilaria Demetrescu, AnnArt Gallery, Bucharest
2024: Nothing is What it Seems, co-curated with Teodora Cosman, Cosman Foundation, Cluj-Napoca
2024: Permanent World Encyclopedia, curator Norbert Filep, Muzeul Banatului Montan Reșița, Gloriae Art Gallery Craiova, Museum of Art Brașov, Amzei Creative Corner Bucharest
2024: The Future is Uncertain but The End is Always Near, Diptych Art Space Bucharest
2023: Silenced Anxiety, AnnArt Gallery Bucharest
2023: Festina Lente, Espace Intermediaire Bruxelles
2023: Hiding in Plain Sight, Biju Gallery, Cluj-Napoca
2023: Threat to The Eye, Indecis Artist Run Space Timișoara
2023: Tout doit passer / All Things Must Pass, La Cave, French Institute Cluj-Napoca
2023: Contemporary Drawing in Romania (organised by Art Movements Foundation), Scemtovici & Benowitz Gallery Bucharest
2022: I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, Meta Spațiu Timișoara
2022: Studies for a Burning Silence, Hangar F, Alba Iulia
2022: Aktion! – Mentoring und Aktion final exhibition, Multicultural Center of Transilvania University from Brașov
2021: Negotiating Reality, E T A J artist-run space Bucharest
2021: Smash Cut, E T A J artist-run space Bucharest
2021: Anatomy of a Knock-out, X Flux Studio, part of The White Night of The Galleries, Cluj-Napoca
2020: Breaking (Im)possibilities, Multicultural Center of Transilvania University from Brașov, Romania
2020: Blurred is The New ID, Estopia Gallery, Bucharest, Romania
2018: CentenART, Museum of Art Brașov
2018: Woman, All Too Woman, Museum of Art Timișoara
2018: Imago Mundi – Join the Dots, Salone degli Incanti Trieste
