"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."

written by Gilda Ghinoiu, Curator