The artist Daniela Grapă stands out both nationally and internationally through a remarkable collection of awards, nominations, exhibitions, and artistic residencies that prove her creative strength and ability to successfully materialise ideas. In her quest for Truth through Art, Daniela Grapă not only discovers but also reveals herself, offering a unique perspective through her paintings. By simultaneously exploring the physical texture of the materials she uses, the artist transcends the two-dimensional plane of the canvas, delicately entering the three-dimensional space and opening herself to the sensory nature of human experience.

Daniela Grapă’s new exhibition, hosted by WIN Gallery, presents a collection of paintings with a distinctive compositional force, surprising both thematically and through the profound effect they have on the viewer. What gives her works an unusual magnetism is the sharp contrast between the themes she tackles and the subtle way in which they are visually expressed. Whether we speak of figurative or non-figurative works, Daniela Grapă demonstrates a stylistic coherence that takes on mystical dimensions, enveloping the viewer in an intimate atmosphere designed to invite to a deep introspective moment.

The dialogue proposed by the artist is inscribed on two value axes: a sacred axis, characterised by an interest in the divine as manifested in the human realm and through abstract visions of creation, and an identity axis, where sensitive moments of internal or external exploration are represented. At the intersection of these two axes, Daniela Grapă explores the ways in which the self, despite its ineffable nature, avatars itself according to the moments of each person's life, taking on an apparent, evanescent form that seems to give meaning but quickly dissolves. From this point, things become complicated, the meaning vanishing and throwing us once again into the angst of self-discovery.

This extensive process sustains the gravitational pull around the paintings, holding the gaze captive in a perpetual generation of mental images and ideas—free associations between us and the proposed visuals. For example, the series of paintings Ascension, Pietà, The Kiss 1 and The Kiss 2 maintain a Christic dimension in their themes but create a bond with each viewer's personal mythology through the personal nature of the representation. These themes are approached through compositions that reference famous works such as Michelangelo's Pietà, the kiss of Judas, the washing of feet, or the ascension of Jesus. The absence of explicit identity elements due to Daniela Grapă's pictorial style allows for a stylistic effect of identification between the viewer and the work, automatically transposing us into the visual narrative proposed.

This effect is part of a natural phenomenon, one that occurs spontaneously at the level of the viewer's reception of the artwork. Within this process, there is a mental reproduction of the creative act, which generates a close connection between the work and the individual. Identification, along with the pseudo-mental reproduction of the creative act, deeply anchors our relationship with the artworks in a sense of familiarity and rediscovery, satisfying the need for belonging, self-determination, and ultimately self-realisation. Daniela Grapă brings us closer to ourselves in this way, not through the traditional allegorical reading of visual parables, but through the personalization of themes and their simultaneous, paradoxical universalization.

Exploring the more abstract realm of Daniela Grapă's works, her interest in the subject of creation materialises in paintings that evoke the turbulence of the beginning moments of Creation. The disintegration of primordial elements is conveyed through swirling colours and uncertain forms, strongly stimulating suggestion, with an inductive effect on our consciousness, triggering reverie through the emotions stirred. The absence of form becomes necessary in this context, its lack contouring the very presence of the concept being portrayed, as seen in works like Eden 1, The Beginning of the World, The Beginning of the World 2, Eden 2, Imago Mundi, Metaphysical Space 2, Tree of Life, and Beginning of the Word.

In light of these observations, we can discern two types of “content” in Daniela Grapă's work—manifest and latent—similar to the structures present in dreams according to Sigmund Freud’s theories. The manifest content places us in an expository, discursive, public zone of the works, accessible on a primary, direct level, attracting us thematically and compositionally. The latent content, however, is subliminal, inviting us to explore our own anxieties and/or perceptions of the world through association, whether with fragile aspects of human existence or through representations of sacred allegories rendered in a schematic way onto which we can project our own mythology. Together, these elements give weight to the entire collection, placing it within its own gravitational field, meant to guide anyone who enters towards personal exploration on new, multidimensional coordinates.

Ph.D. Researcher Andrei FĂȘIE