Maria Bordeanu was born in Bucharest in 1982. She has got a MFA degree in Painting from UNARTE Bucharest since 2007. Her works focus on time's traces in nature and objects, with reconstructed elements of places where memories and layers of history are present. She has been represented by 418 Gallery (Cetate/Munich) since 2011, taking part in various international exhibitions and art fairs. She currently lives and works in Stockholm. Maria is a member of Studio 44 in Stockholm, SKF/Konstnärshuset, Konstnärernas Riksorganisation and Nordiska Akvarellsällskapet.
Maria's artistic interests revolve around photorealistic, figurative and cinematic themes subtly infused with elements of media culture, alongside dystopian elements and post-human visual metaphors. In 2024 she represents Romania at the first edition of the Durres International Biennale of Contemporary Art. The same year Maria Bordeanu is one of the finalist artists chosen for the art aquisition at the Museum of Contemporary Art within the Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu. Summer 2025 Maria takes part in the art residency at Villa San Michele in Capri, Italy. In 2026 she is one of the artists representing Nordiska Akvarellsällskapet at ECWS Gdansk, Poland. She is one of the artists chosen for the juried exhibition at JANUS Museum, Denmark and a finalist of Prisma Art Prize, the 19th edition.
Upcoming:
JANUS Museum Kunstnernes Sommerudstilling KS26 - June 2026
Lines We Cross, Lines We Draw - July 2026, 418 Gallery - Cetate Arts Danube, curators Martina Yordanova and Antonella Grevers
Platforms Project Athens - Independent Art Fair with Studio 44 - September 2026
ECWS Gdansk, Nordiska Akvarellsällskapet - September 2026 with a follow-up exhibition in Malmö
Circolo Scandinavo Art Residency in Rome - December 2026
EDUCATION
2007 Master in Visual Arts Painting, UNArte Bucharest
2005 Bachelor of Arts Painting, UNArte Bucharest
2001 Graduate of “Nicolae Tonitza” Art Highschool, Bucharest
PERSONAL EXHIBITIONS
2024 „Konversationer”, Rumänska Kulturinstitutet, Stockholm
2019 „Deconstructed Spaces”, Carturesti Carusel, Bucharest
2017 "Artificial Habitat", Arthol2 Pavesiana, Bucharest
2015 "Final Scene", 418 Gallery, Bucharest
STIPENDIUM
2025 Villa San Michele Art residency, Capri, Italy
BIENNALE
2024 Durres International Biennale of Contemporary Art, Romanian Pavilion
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026 Lines We Cross, Lines We Draw, 418 Gallery, Cetate Arts Danube
2026 Kunstnernes Sommerudstilling KS26, JANUS Museum, Tistrup
2026 The Energy of the Square, 418 Gallery, Munich
2026 Brösarps Salong, Brösarps Konsthall
2025 "Konsten att vara/ The Art of Being", SKF Konstnärshuset, Stockholm
2025 "Light horizons", 418 Gallery, Munich
2025 "INVENTAR 24", Museum of Contemporary Art within the Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu
2024 Contemporary Drawing in Romania 2nd edition, Scemtovici & Benowitz Gallery, Bucharest
2023 „Architecture and Texture”, 418 Gallery, Munich
2023 „Giallo”, 418 Gallery, Munich
2023 Contemporary Drawing in Romania, Scemtovici & Benowitz Gallery, Bucharest
2023 Arte Laguna Prize finalist, The 16th Edition, Arsenale, Venice
2022 "Wintermärchen", 418 Gallery, Munich
2022 “Other Worlds on Paper”, 418 Gallery, Munich
2021 “Blue Coated Summer”, ARCUB, Bucharest, 418 Gallery - Cetate Arts Danube
2021 “Young Artists, Young Friends” Accrochage 3, 418 Gallery - Cetate Arts Danube
2021 London Art Biennale participant
2021 “Young Artists, Young Friends” Accrochage 2, 418 Gallery, Munich
2020 “Young Artists, Young Friends” Accrochage 1, 418 Gallery, Munich
2019 Screen projection at ARTBOX/PROJECT MIAMI 2.0, Miami, USA
2018 “Join the Dots”, Treviso, Italy
2017 "9 years of art & Romanian artists", 418 Gallery, Bucharest
2016 "European Cuteness Art", Parliament Palace, Bucharest
2014 "Imago Mundi – The Art of Humanity", Treviso, Italy
2012 “FEMART”, Visual Arts Center, Bucharest
2011 “Fur & Skin”, Art Yourself, Bucharest
2011 “Drafts and Open Windows”, a project of collaboration and cultural exchange Art in Embassies, USA Embassy, Bucharest
2011 “The Silk Exhibition: Presence, Affinity and Loss”, LC Foundation, Bucharest
2011 “The OTHER Body”, Victoria Art Center, Bucharest
2009 “BODY”, Visual Arts Center, Bucharest
2007 “Zoom In”, Artis Gallery TNB, Bucharest
2006 “Transmissionen 3/ Transmisiuni III”, Stuttgart (DE), Bucuresti (RO)
2006 First Prize at Young Artists’ Gala PRIMAVERA, B.C.U., Bucharest
ART FAIRS
2026 RAD Art Fair Bucharest, 418 Gallery, Munich
2025 Art Brussels, The KickCancer Collection with 418 Gallery, Munich
2024 Art Brussels, The KickCancer Collection with 418 Gallery, Munich
2023 Art Brussels, The KickCancer Collection with 418 Gallery, Munich
2021 Vienna Contemporary, 418 Gallery, Munich
2021 Art Brussels Week, 418 Gallery, Munich
2020 Vienna Contemporary, 418 Gallery, Munich
2020 Art Brussels Platform, “Form Vibration. Kinetic Reflection”, 418 Gallery, Munich
2012 Toronto Art Fair, 418 Gallery, Munich
SELECTED MEDIA
Kunstnernes Sommerudstilling KS26 Catalogue
https://ks.vardemuseerne.dk/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/KS2026-katalog.pdf
Prisma Art Prize 19th edition finalists, 2026
https://www.prismaartprize.com/19th-edition-year-5-2/
Contemporary Art Curator Magazine Interview, 2025
https://www.contemporaryartcuratormagazine.com/home-2/maria-bordeanu-interview
"Timpul" Magazine Interview, 2024
https://revistatimpul.ro/in-dialog-cu-artista-maria-bordeanu/
Durres International Biennale of Contemporary Art, Romanian pavilion, 2024
https://durresbiennale.org/en/artists/Romania/artists/Maria-Bordeanu
“Konversationer”, ICR Stockholm, 2024
418 Gallery (Cetate-Munchen)
https://418gallery.com/artists/maria-m-bordeanu/
Artsy profile (418 Gallery)
https://www.artsy.net/artist/maria-bordeanu
Mihaela Dedeoglu interview at Radio RFI about Blue Coated Summer, ARCUB, 2021
https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=380065623578507
“Young Artists, Young Friends” Accrochage 3, 418 Gallery - Cetate Arts Danube TVRi reportage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FSMFo6J8Cw&t=815s
min. 10:02
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW7WY5_uROE
min. 05:28
Imago Mundi Collection - Snapshot Romania
https://imagomundicollection.org/catalogues/romania-snapshot-romania/
ART Habens Art Review
COLLECTIONS
Museum of Contemporary Art within the Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu, Romania
Art in Embassies Collection, USA Embassy, Bucharest, Romania
Works in private collections in Romania, Germany, France, Bulgaria, Italy
PUBLICATIONS
Durres International Biennale of Contemporary Art Catalogue, First Edition. Published by Shtepia Botuese in Tirana, 2024
Contemporary Drawing in Romania 2024 Catalogue, Art Movements Foundation, 2024
Snapshot Romania. Contemporary Artists from Romania Catalogue. First published by FABRICA, Italy, 2013
CRITIQUE
Critique by Kurt Beers, 2026, regarding works from the Afterimage series
Maria, I think there is a very sensitive and refined painting practice developing here, one that understands restraint as a strength rather than a limitation. The small scale of the works immediately creates intimacy, encouraging close and sustained viewing. Rather than overwhelming the viewer, the paintings operate quietly and gradually, revealing themselves through subtle shifts in tone, atmosphere, and detail. This measured approach feels highly considered and aligns very well with your thematic concerns around memory, perception, and instability.
What I find particularly successful is the way the paintings exist between representation and disappearance. The imagery is recognisable with sculptural fragments, bodies, foliage, reflected light and yet, never fully fixed. Forms seem to emerge and dissolve simultaneously, as though recalled imperfectly or viewed through layers of time and mediation. This creates a strong psychological atmosphere throughout the work. The paintings do not simply depict memory; they structurally behave like memory, where clarity and obscurity coexist and perception remains unstable.
The monochromatic palette is also very effective. By limiting colour, you shift the focus toward light, surface, and spatial ambiguity. The greyscale handling gives the works a photographic or cinematic quality, but importantly they never feel photorealistic. Instead, they occupy a more suspended space between painting, image, and afterimage. The tonal restraint allows small transitions in value and texture to carry significant emotional weight, and this subtlety becomes one of the defining strengths of the work.
I am especially interested in the dual compositions, where two distinct image spaces coexist within a single canvas. These divisions create quiet but compelling tensions between interior and exterior, body and landscape, permanence and transience. The juxtaposition of sculptural forms with foliage or reflective surfaces feels particularly resonant, as though different temporalities or states of perception are being placed into dialogue with one another. These compositional structures help reinforce the conceptual framework without becoming overly illustrative.
Your recurring use of gardens, ruins, and classical sculpture feels well resolved conceptually. These motifs could easily become overly symbolic or romanticised, but here they remain restrained and ambiguous. I think this is because you approach them less as symbols and more as unstable visual fragments. The sculptures appear partially cropped or obscured, while the landscapes dissolve into blurred light and texture. This withholding creates space for the viewer to actively reconstruct the image, which makes looking feel participatory rather than passive.
There is also a strong sensitivity to surface throughout the work. The softened edges, blurred passages, and delicate transitions between focus and dissolution suggest a careful understanding of how paint can mimic the instability of perception itself. In some paintings the brushwork almost disappears into atmosphere, while in others certain details momentarily sharpen before dissolving again. This fluctuation between precision and loss gives the paintings their emotional tension.
Conceptually, I think the idea of the constructed landscape as a site of projection and control is particularly interesting. The notion of gardens as staged or culturally engineered environments adds an important critical dimension to the work, preventing it from becoming purely melancholic or nostalgic. The paintings seem aware that beauty itself can be constructed, mediated, and historically loaded. That tension between harmony and artificiality gives the work depth and contemporary relevance.
I also think the small scale works very much in your favour at this stage. The intimacy of the format reinforces the quietness of the imagery and encourages a slower mode of looking. However, it may also be interesting to consider how these atmospheric and perceptual qualities might operate at a larger scale in the future. Larger works could potentially intensify the immersive qualities of the blurred surfaces and spatial ambiguity, while still retaining the restraint that makes the paintings effective.
At the same time, I would encourage you to continue trusting the quieter and more unresolved moments within the work. The strongest paintings are those where the image feels slightly withheld, where the viewer is left negotiating between recognition and uncertainty. Those spaces of ambiguity feel central to the identity of the practice.
Overall, I think this is a thoughtful and highly nuanced body of work that balances conceptual clarity with painterly sensitivity. The paintings feel mature in their restraint, visually cohesive, and emotionally intelligent. There is a strong sense that the work is less concerned with depicting images than with examining how images are remembered, mediated, and continuously reconstructed through time.
Thank you for allowing me to review your work and artistic practice, it has been a pleasure!
Most sincerely,
Kurt