Studium

Olimpiu Bandalac is a Romanian artist with a long artistic career, whose work is studied in art faculties across Romania. He is a reference artist, recognized for his experimental art with a strong social and cultural analytical component, spanning photography, installation, artistic objects, performance, and artistic animation films, both as an artist and director. Alongside his ultra-contemporary and experimental art, or perhaps intertwined with it, Bandalac has also painted and drawn, though this side of his creativity has only recently been revealed.

Now at his second solo exhibition at Scemtovici&Benowitz Gallery, following “ORELE…” in 2023—where he presented painting, photography, and sound in a multimedia installation—Bandalac focuses on drawings from different periods, spanning from 1983 to the present. Alongside these, the exhibition includes photographs—starting points for the displayed graphics—and a few paintings. The drawings, made on paper with ink, watercolors, and especially colored pastels, are framed in artist-designed frames, created specifically to integrate into an installation-like display. The exhibition is not just a showcase of works but a coherent ensemble where each drawing functions both as an individual entity and as part of a visual narrative unfolding in time and space.

Conceptually, Olimpiu Bandalac draws inspiration from Roland Barthes’ essay Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography (1980), which defines two fundamental concepts for analyzing an image: studium and punctum. Studium refers to the general interest a viewer might have in an image—its cultural, historical, or social context—what can be observed and understood rationally. It encompasses elements such as subject, composition, light, and the photographer’s intention, engaging a calm, intellectual appreciation. In contrast, punctum is the detail in an image that “pierces” the viewer, provoking an immediate and personal emotional response. It is unplanned, subjective, and unique to each observer.

In Studium, Bandalac begins with photographs capturing moving female bodies, gradually abstracting the forms into rhythmic, curving, diagonal, and colorful lines. This transformation turns bodily movement into a visual abstraction, exploring the relationship between form, motion, and color. The approach invites viewers to reflect on perception and interpretation, bridging photography and abstract art. It is a symbolic abstraction, where the body exists at the boundary between anatomical structure and symbolic meaning. Thus, his drawings and paintings transcend mere stylistic exercises, becoming a space of tension between order and spontaneity, between formal study and expressive gesture, evoking fragments of presence, memory, and visual impact.

Bandalac constructs abstract forms from vectors, curved lines, zigzags, or diagonals that metaphorically “pierce” the paper, much like Barthes’ punctum. His drawings stem from his own photographs of women captured in ambiguous, dynamic moments. Light becomes line, line becomes plane, and then back again, while the tip of the line punctures the paper, capturing our gaze. These abstracted forms exist between human anatomy and symbolic representation, with punctum manifesting in the energetic strokes that seem to escape the two-dimensional surface, creating a vibrating tension between structure and spontaneity. His abstract compositions retain traces of human anatomy, yet they are filtered and transformed into a system of plastic signs that transcend realism.

Within this body of work, two distinct directions emerge: some drawings are dense and dark, with heavily worked surfaces, while others leave more open white space, where vibrant color patches create accents—perhaps the punctum. This interplay between fullness and emptiness, force and fragility, reflects the tension between form, color, and gesture—an artistic language Bandalac continues to develop.

One of the gallery’s spaces, conceived as a standalone exhibition curated by Bandalac himself, presents a selection of works by his mentors and professors: Ioan Cristodulo, Alexandrina Gheție, Alexandra Vasilichian, Marcela Rădulescu, and Ion Sălișteanu. This display pays tribute to those who guided his artistic development, offering insight into his creative trajectory. Predominantly composed of graphic works, the selection highlights the influence and values imparted by these mentors, emphasizing the continuity of a rich artistic tradition.

Olimpiu Bandalac is a Romanian visual artist, born in Săcele-Brașov in 1955. He lives and works in Bucharest and Brașov. He studied with painters Ioan Cristodulo (1969–73), Alexandrina Gheție (1973–1995), and Ion Sălișteanu (1975–78) at the Nicolae Grigorescu Institute of Fine Arts in Bucharest. Since 1980, he has exhibited works in drawing, painting, installation, photography, experimental film, and animation. In 1994–1995, he co-founded the EUROARTIST BUCUREȘTI group alongside Teodor Graur. He has been a member of the Romanian Union of Visual Artists (UAP) since 1981 and the Romanian Filmmakers’ Union (UCIN) since 1983. His eclectic and multifaceted art spans photography, experimental art, drawing, painting, object art, and installation. His works are part of museum collections, including MNAC, MARe, the Brașov Art Museum, the Cluj Art Museum, the Alexandru Rus collection, the Art Movements Foundation collection, as well as various public and private collections in Romania and abroad.

- Curator Raluca Ilaria Demetrescu