Serban Savu – Paintings Where Religion Blends With Social Themes – Venice 2024 Biennale
The melancholic depiction of the every day life of his countrymen and countrywomen seems possible only the way he does it. – In an impressionistic manner. It’s a glance on an elusive reality where the signs of faith, hope and love are well hidden on the walls of abandoned factories.
Serban Savu is a Romanian figurative artist who captures on his canvases the daily life of today’s Romanians. In 1989, when in Romania the communist regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu was overthrown, Savu was 11 years old. Years passed but it seems that the childhood memories of the socialist realism are haunting characters in his paintings.
Serban Savu belongs to so called Cluj school of Romanian artists. The style of Cluj school is focused on depicting the banality and uncertainty of life after the fall of Communism and is characterized by the loose application of paint, often with dark, sultry palettes.
At the Venice 2024 Biennale in the Romanian pavilion Serban Savu shows his project “What Work Is”. – Four large sized paintings depicting four episodes from the life of his countrymen. Two of these paintings carry religious elements.
Although not a religious person, he blends religious subjects with social topics of his genre paintings. For instance, the themes with churches being renovated.
Facebook: Serban Savu
Romanian pavilion at Venice 2024 Biennale
