Serban Savu
Hot Hours Of The Afternoon, 2007, oil on canvas, 29 x 40 cm
Concrete Needs More Time To Harden, 2008, oilopn canvas, 110 x 160 cm
Close To Nature, 2011, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 cm
The Brick Factory, 2011, oil on canvas, 141 x 190 cm
No Parking, 2007, oil on canvas, 28 x 40 cm
Pleasant Chat, 2010, oil on canvas, 35 x45 cm
In The Shadow Of The Dam, 2008, oil on canvas, 146 x 123 cm
Three Friends, 2009, oil on canvas, 163 x 200 cm
Procession, 2011, oil on canvas, 35 x 50 cm
The Card Players, 2011, oil on canvas, 135 x 180 cm
About the Artist
Serban Savu is a figurative painter whose quiet canvases capture the daily existence of contemporary Romanians at work and leisure. He remains elusive with his interior scenes depicting people unaware of our external gaze and absorbed in their own worlds, viewed through glass. His exterior rural landscapes often portray solitary figures in the middle-distance, isolated and overwhelmed. It’s Romanian contemporary society, where the collapse of the communist utopia has paved the way for capitalism to emerge.
Savu’s paintings do not illustrate the chaos, intensity and dirtiness; his perspective is neither heroic nor critical, but rather calm and precise. It is as if he wishes to suspend the flux on the predictable and the accidental. The dominant colours, are faded grey, green and blue. Nothing spoils the stillness of the image. Savu’s oeuvre is thus a series of poignant, observational snapshots that obliquely reveal the psyche of the ‘ordinary’ Romanian as the country experiences political change and economic growth.
Serban Savu at David Nolan Gallery
Serban Savu at Nicodim Gallery
posted by Carmelita Caruana
Great captures! A glimpse of the real day by day mystic empty moments. All in the nothing of the in in-between. Quite up to date imagery.
Well said! “All in the nothing of the in in-between.” Happy you like this deep and quiet work.