WIN Gallery invites you to a regal "Retrospective" by Marinela Mantescu-lsac, celebrating 70 years of a well thought, well lived and well portrayed life in the spirit and service of the arts.
Between the alert rhythm of life and the mundane tasks that occupy the largest portion of the day, art often gets relegated by most people to a secondary set of priorities: desirable but dispensable. The irony is that, looking back, the memories that most enlighten the mind and soothe the soul are those connected with making and seeking beauty. An earlier and greater awareness of it would perhaps change the choices that we make but as Soren Kierkegaard famously said: "Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards".
Ms. Marinela Măntescu-lsac dedicated her entire life to one goal: becoming an artist not only by mastering the technique of painting but by exploring the depths of human emotion and understanding theconstant chess game between the transient and the unchangeable. The result is an extraordinary collection of works that encompasses a variety of themes, from still lifes, to portraits and complex compositions that allude to the duality of the individual, between mask and character. In each of them there is the evanescence, the aura, the immortalization of the fleeting moment.
The landscapes have a quasi-sensory quality to them, a vibrancy and musicality dictated both by color and the bold brushstroke. In her marines, for instance, the wind, the waves, the coastal vegetation can almost be heard and touched. The sensation is that you are not only seeing but breathing in the spirit of that time and place.
The heroes of her works are highly elaborate, enigmatic, with expressions that fuse joy with nostalgia, the appearance with the profound. Approaching classical themes like the circus or other venues of public entertainment, she exposes the timeless dichotomy between what people show and what they hide - by means of role, mask, convention or simply conniving impulses. Extrapolating the scene, it is the perpetual performance of humanity.
Having celebrated her 70th birthday this year (2024), Ms. Marinela Mantescu-lsac is bestowing upon WIN Gallery the honor to display works made throughout her career. Her prestige has long expanded beyond the borders of Romania and she is present in many private and public collections across the world, including: the United States, Canada, Switzerland, France, Germany, Japan, Israel, the Netherlands and many others.
For WIN Gallery, it is a particularly festive occasion because Ms. Mantescu-lsachas been a driving force, an inspiration, a mentor and the curator of many exhibitions since our debut. A "Retrospective" is by definition a hint at things past but this collection is especially, purposefully about the future. It is a perspective on art as practice and passion, a contemplation on the ways in which it elevates each of us to a superior level of thinking and acting. Art holds immense, transformative potential but it is our hands, our eyes and our minds that hold the power to unleash it.
Cristian Pascu - Patron of the Arts
Irina Stoenescu - Chairlady
Catalin Gurita-Manole - Director of Experience
