The Art Pledge
Portrait of Șerban Savu

Șerban Savu

Born in
1978
From
Sighișoara, Romania
Lives and works
Cluj, Romania
Represented by
Galeria Plan B

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It's a bigger challenge to expand its [painting's] boundaries - to express something very actual in a medium that has been used for thousands of years. It's a challenge not to reiterate what has been said before, not to use cliches, to be honest with what you really believe and with your perception of the world, and to be able to express that through painting.


Biography

Serban Savu is a contemporary Romanian painter known for his skillful figurative paintings. Inspired by and deeply rooted in the traditions of the medium, Savu’s canvases depict the everyday life of people in urban and rural landscapes. Using the language of a painting as a tool to express the meaning, Serban Savu paints the surrounding reality and pays attention to the human condition.

Whether triggered by a controversial socio-political protest or by a casual scene in the park, Serban Savu’s acute observation of the outside world creates a space where the past and present exist simultaneously. The way he presents events as non-events, both real and alienating, partly caused by the intentional fogginess of his paintings, links Savu to Edward Hopper’s alienated depiction of casual everyday life scenes of American cities.

The noticeable realism of Savu’s paintings is rooted in the artist's profound interest in art history and his inspiration in historical and current socio-political events. The precision with which he merges photorealistic qualities with social scenarios recalls the approach of French naturalist painters such as Jules Bastien-Lepage.

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