SHORT BIO
BIOGRAPHY
Ioana Băltan (b. Dragomirești, Dâmbovița) lives and works în London. She attended The National University of Arts, Bucharest, where she obtained a BA degree in painting in 2015. The same year, Băltan obtained the Teaching Training Department's BA degree issued by the same institution. She continued her studies at The Brera Fine Arts Academy Milan with a scholarship and got an MA Degree in Strategies of Creation in Painting released by the National University of Arts Bucharest.
Băltan's paintings reveal her strong preoccupation with contemporary approaches to the female figure. Her large scale compositions are thought as a body of visual research on portraying feminine archetypes with a strong focus on how these subjects were depicted overtime as angelic beauty icons, grotesque monsters or recently as animated plastic simulacra. Ioana's urban goddesses are surrounded by fantastic landscapes decorated with cosmic elements, wild fauna all of them shrouded with artificial lights. Her paintings were exhibited nationally and internationally, in institutions and spaces such as the Royal Academy of Arts London, Koppel X Space, Spazio San Vidal Biennale Viterbo-Venice, and Art Safari Bucharest. She has been interviewed by a variety of online and print publications, including Issue no 2 London Paint Club Magazine, Contemporary Art Collectors platform, and Tagsmart - Artist of the Month.STUDIES
BA - National University of Arts, Bucharest, RO, 2015
MA - National University of Arts, Bucharest, RO, 2017
MA - scolarship- Brera Academy of Arts, Milan, IT, 2016-2017
EXHIBITION LIST
2024- "Fantastyfrolia: A Painted Tale With Tints of Marzipan", IOMO Art Gallery
2023- "Feast of the Immortals", Maggio Art Consultancy x Artsy
2015- "Anima Damnata", Go Contemporary
2023- "The passerby who stays", Koppel X
2022- "Selected vol 2", London Paint Club, Koppel X
2022- "Arte Vi.Ve", Biennale of Viterbo, Venice
2022- "Tendencies in Painting", London Paint Club
2022- "Maggio Metaverse", online
2020-2021- "Summer Exhibition" Royal Academy of Arts
2019- "Look me for the last time”, Group Exhibition, Elite Art Gallery
2019- 'Alpha-Theta', The Old Biscuit Factory
2018- Candid Art Trust Art Fair
2017- Erasmus exhibition, San Carpoforo Church, Milan
2016- Art Safari Exhibition”, group exhibition, Go Contemporary Gallery pavilion, Dacia Palace, Bucharest, Romania.
2016- “Art Safari”-artist Presentation, Dacia Palace, Bucharest, Romania - Go Contemporary Gallery .
2023- Artmajeur Magazine 'Women: From Unicorns to Pets'
2022- Issue no 2 ‘Tendencies in Painting’, London Paint Club
2019- January publication 'Artist of the week', Tagsmart, London, UK
2022- Shortlisted at Zealous Amplify: Mental Health and Wellbeing, London
2022- Member of London Paint Club
2022- Contemporary Art Collectors Programme
2022- Shortlisted at Zealous Amplify: Mental Health and Wellbeing, London
2022- Honorable Mention, Chelsea International Fine Art Competition, New York, US
2019- Shortlisted first round - ArtRooms London, UK
2015- “Criterion art prize”, Dalles Hall, Bucharest, Romania,
2014- “Gheorghe Petrascu", National Arts Biennial The Art Museum, Targoviste, Romania
NEWS AND PUBLICATIONS
"A Barbie world conquering the fantasy realms of childhood emerges in shots that look like Instagram selfies. The artist’s careful attention to rendering hair volume by applying thin, elongated and calm brush strokes, as well as the manner in which the garments are treated in subtly textured pastel tones, amplify the femininity of the characters depicted. All the canvases thus become feminine, gaining the quality of frames that are witnesses to the defiance of heteronormative norms and transforming the paintings into a series of confessions of the auctorial ego. Ioana Băltan’s messages go beyond the aestheticization of dolls taking selfies while eating cakes, wearing make-up or riding fluffy unicorns in a flying gallop, and aim at exposing the excessive fetishization of female bodies, a fetishization that starts in early childhood and drives a whole cluster of consumer goods industries, be they toys, pastries, cosmetics or Instagram reels."
Curated by Gilda Ghinoiu
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