Daniela Fainis
Critical References
In Daniela Fainis’ herbariums, made from manually shaped China clay, drawn and slit with coloured pigments and cobalt oxide, bundles of line suggest rods of plants broken and pressed so as to endure despite their typological precariousness; as in the most coveted pieces of amber bearing within them traces of times gone by (remember that for such precious materials a veritable road – a king’s road, in fact, was traced centuries ago, as was in the case of silk, but in another direction), these parietal objects have from time to time fostered the survival of fragile stalks or inflorescences.
With a final breath and as a triumph of vitality, pulsating with underground energies, an oversized leaf is brought to the forefront of the structure and within the predictable routes of imagery, highlighting them; a careful analysis – and Daniela Fainis’ work requires such an approach and suggests the virtual routes adorned by aesthetic exhilaration – yet it also highlights the frailty of the leaf, in whose colour and consistency the Fates have already been shown glimpses of a rite of passage. – Doina Pauleanu PhD, art critic and director of the Constanta Art museum.
In a world where most people try to do something other than their qualifications, Daniela Fainis builds what she knows best - simple ceramic shaes. Even if their relationship with space and, in many cases, dimensions, proportions and figurativism refer to sculpture, even if the drawings that animate the surface or comment on volume refer to graphics or even if the wall objects, with minimal volumetry, can invoke the idea of painting, of painting, that has absolutely no importance.
Daniela Fainis does neither graphics, nor sculpture nor painting or, on the contrary, she does all three at the same time, and some tapestry on top of that, but she does them from a perspective and a stylistic angle that are only decorative.
Through its self-sufficient forms, its refusal of any imposed transcendence of the image, its perfect collaboration with the material and its impeccable mastery of techniques - from warm modeling to austere detail, from sanguine pulse to industrial frigidity and from geometric or ironically accented drawing to unadulterated burning - the artistic approach is a decorative commentary - a play of spectacular surfaces and humble existences - on the world itself. Although the artist makes voluptuous use of the figurative image, both in three-dimensional and in drawing, although she plays insistently with the idea of portraiture, in fact with that of self-portraiture, and many of her works could be associated, in intention and purpose, with sculpture, a closer look reveals nothing that betrays any attempt to step out of her own universe. The series of heads, easily assimilated to a portrait gallery, has actually nothing to do with portraiture. While the sculptor individualizes, palpates psychologies and probes the inner life of the character, Daniela Fainis builds generic faces, directs blank expressions and finally sets in motion a hallucinatory world of masks.
The human face does not fascinate by its sense of eternity, by the idea of the incorporation of the divine in the transitory and, in conclusion, neither does it claim that immortality that the sculptor tries to identify and recover, but it is seen rather as an ambient piece in a universe saturated with forms, expressions and substances with different densities. And however varied they may be morphologically, in terms of existential regime or state of aggregation, Daniele Fainis' objects are not subject to any hierarchical scheme and have, environmentally, the same status, and in relation to the material and technique they have the same value as document and witness. The tiny object commenting on the honeycomb structure and porosity of the coral, the textile frozen in the porcelain emulsion, the vegetal meanders, the human face exfoliating to reveal, with bitter irony, its mechanical intimacy and the barely camouflaged vacuum bags, have the same individual importance and together build an inexhaustible image of a world at once alive and frozen. Daniela Fainis' imagination, both narrative and plastic, is absolutely prodigious and perfectly coherent in expression, language and finished form. Free from any aggressiveness and totally liberated from the traumatizing obsessions of everyday life, his art is powerful and overwhelming by itself; by the consistency of its design, by the clarity of the project, by the impeccable knowledge of material and technique and, above all, by the weightlessness that unites them all and which the viewer is free to call as they see fit. - Pavel Susara, art critic
Daniele Fainis's works from the cycle ”Pietre de hotar” (”Milestones”), stylistically and technically related - it is hand shaped porcelain, incised and painted in successive layers of the same material, baked at 1340°C. - with ”Fereastra” (”Window”), they plunge us into the mysterious atmosphere of the rites of passage; the boundary, however, is not an anonymous milestone, and the window cannot be the opening made in just any wall; they indicate and trace the path to the light open to all, but accessible only to the worthy. In ”Ierbar” (”Herbarium”) - the series the artist has been working on lately - the contrasts are sustained not only linearly, but also chromatically. Flowers of auroral freshness emerge from dried, charred, frozen, petrified vegetation, like signs of life pulsating anytime and almost anywhere. -Dr. Doina Pauleanu, art critic and Director of the Constanta Art Museum
Resume
Fine artist – member of the Romanian Union of Fine Artists
Date of birth: Octomber 3, 1961 - Romania
Education:
1981-1985 – “Nicolae Grigorescu” Art Academy, Bucharest
Personal Exhibitions:
*2007-2008 Palatele Brancovenesti Cultural Center – Bucharest, Romania
*2007 Botanical Garden – Bucharest, Romania
*2004 Lapidarium – Palatele Brancovenesti Cultural Center – Mogosoaia, Romania
*2003 Prometheus Club – Bucharest, Romania
2003 Accademia di Romania – Roma, Italy
*2002 Allianz – Tiriac Gallery – Bucharest, Romania
2001 Sanshokan Museum – Hida Furukawa, Japan
2001 “Titu Maiorescu“ Cultural Centre – Berlin, Germany
2000 Paris Cultural Centre, France
*1999 Brukenthal Museum Sibiu - Romania
1999 Council of Europe - Strasburg – France
*1998 Round Hall Gallery National Theatre – Bucharest, Romania
1996 “The Gerhart- Hauptman Foundation” Gallery – Dusseldorf, Germany
1992 “The Gerhart- Hauptman Foundation” Gallery – Dusseldorf, Germany
1992 “Simeza” Gallery – Bucharest, Romania
1992 “La Source” Gallery – Brussels, Belgium
1989 Mamaia Art Gallery, Romania
1988 Mamaia Art Gallery – Mamaia, Romania
Group Exhibitions:
2014 Senso Gallery – Decorative Art Exhibition – Bucharest, Romania
2013 International Exhibition of Contemporary Art – „Keramik in Steinbruch” – Oberpullendorf, Austria
2013 “Shades of White’ Galateea Gallery’ – Bucharest, Romania
2012 Simeza Gallery “International Exhibition of Contemporary Art – Bucharest, Romania
2011 Cotroceni Museum, National Hall of Decorative Art, 12th Edition, – Bucharest, Romania
2011 Orizont Gallery Art Hall – Bucharest, Romania
2011 Ceramics in Steinbruch - Austria
2010 Romanian Contemporary Ceramic Art – Romanian Cultural Institute – Paris, France
2009 Romanian Ceramics Today – Palatele Brancovenesti Mogosoaia, Romania
2008-2009 Palace of Parliament, Constantin Brancusi Hall – Bucharest, Romania
2006 Crossing by Crossing – Simeza Gallery – Bucharest, Romania
2006 International Action Art – Club UNESCO – Piraeus, Greece
2006 Marathon Museum - Greece
2004 Romanian and Finnish Art – Municipality of Bucharest Museum
2004 Spring Hall - Mogosoaia
2003 Apollo Gallery –Bucharest, Romania
2003 „Simeza” Gallery – „Options” – Bucharest, Romania
2002 International Art Exhibition “Remember – Creative Women by the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea “– Bucharest, Romania
2001 International Art Exhibition „Remember – Creative Women by the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea” – Bucharest, Romania
*2000 International Art Exhibition „Remember – Creative Women by the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea” – Thessaloniki, Greece
2000 Cotroceni Museum – Bucharest, Romania
2000 World Exhibition – Hannover, Germany
1999 Art Hal – Institute of Architecture – Bucharest, Romania
1999 International Fair of Visual Arts – Cotroceni Palace – Bucharest, Romania
1998 Art Hall – Dalles Hall – Bucharest, Romania
* 1997 International Art Exhibition „Remember – Creative Women by the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea” – Thessaloniki, Greece
1996 Constanta Art Museum, Romania
1996 “Gala” Gallery – Bucharest, Romania
1995 Inter-Balkan Cooperation Society of Romanian Women – 45 Fine Artists - from Romania – Bucharest, Romania
1995 Decorative Art Hall – Cotroceni National Museum – Bucharest, Romania
1995 Monselice Castle – Italy
1994 Honolulu – Hawaii – United States of America
1994 Maui – Hawaii – United States of America
1994 Aubum – New York – United States of America
1994 National Theatre Gallery – Bucharest, Romania
1993 Romanian Pavillion –Taejon, South Korea
1993 Baltimore – Maryland – United States of America
1994 Pittsburgh – Pennsylvania – United States of America
1992 „Artothecke” – Berlin, Germany
1992 „Nimagine 92 Espace Roumain”- Nimes, France
1991 Art Triennial of the National Theatre Gallery – Bucharest, Romania
1988 Decorative Art Exhibition – Eisenstadt, Austria
1988 Decorative Art Exhibition – Berlin, Germany
1989 “Dalles Hall“ Gallery – Bucharest, Romania
1989 “Eforie” Gallery – Bucharest, Romania
1990 Bucharest Art Museum, Romania
1988 Bucharest Art Museum, Romania
1988 “Dalles Hall“ Gallery– Bucharest, Romania
1988 National Theater Gallery – Bucharest, Romania
1988 Annual Exhibition – Bucharest, Romania
1987 Museum of Glass and Ceramics – Dorohoi, Romania
1987 Museum of Glass and Ceramics – Dorohoi, Romania
1987 “Studio 35“ – Botosani – Romania
1986 “Galeria Luchian“ – Botosani – Romania
Symposiums
2011 International Painting Symposium – Patra - Greece
2007-2008 1st International Convention of Modern Arts Symposium–Stuttgart -
Germany
2004 National Camp of Contemporary Fine Art, 3rd Edition
Todireni- Romania
2004 Ceramics Symposium –Compared Art Museum Sangiorz Bai - Romania
2003 “Heavens on Fire“ Ceramics Symposium – Sangiorz Bai - Romania
2000 “Support Organization for Overseas Ceramics” Symposium – Tajimi- Japan
1999 “Hamangia” International Symposium of Ceramics– Constanta – Romania
1996 “Hamangia” International Symposium of Ceramics– Constanta – Romania
1992 “Contemporary East European Ceramics” Symposium – Philadelphia
United States of America
1988 Ceramics Symposium – Dorohoi - Romania
1987 Ceramics Symposium – Dorohoi - Romania
International Competitions
*2003 6th International Biennial of Artistic Ceramics –Manises - Spain
*2002 6th International Ceramics Competition -Mino – Japan
*2001 “Fire Arts” International Biennial - Bucharest – Romania
*1998 “Fire Arts” International Biennial - Bucharest – Romania
*1998 5th International Ceramics Competition -Mino – Japan
*1997 5th International Biennial of Artistic Ceramics– Aveiro – Portugal
*1996 4th International Biennial of Miniatures – Yugoslavia
*1992 3rd International Ceramics Competition - Mino – Japan
*1992 XXXII Concorso Internazionale Della Ceramica D’arte Gualdo
Tadino-Perugia-Italy
*1991 5th International Triennial of Ceramics – Sopot – Poland
*1990 XXX Concorso Internazionale Della Ceramica D’arte Gualdo Tadino
Perugia – Italy
*1989 XXIX Concorso Internazionale Della Ceramica D’arte Gualdo Tadino
Perugia – Italy
Prizes and Awards
2010 « Flacara Award for Fine Arts » edition 2010 – Bucharest - Romania
2004 “Cultural Merit“ with the Rank of Commander – awarded by the President of Romani
*2002 “Honourable Mention “- Mino – Japan
*1998 “Honourable Mention “- Mino – Japan
*1998 The “Alexandru Tipoia“ Award for Best Exhibition of the Year – Bucharest -Romania
*1998 Grand Prize of the “Fire Arts” International Biennial – Bucharest - -Romania
*1997 1st Prize – International Biennial of Artistic Ceramics – Aveiro – Portugal
*1997 Cotroceni National Museum Award – Bucharest – Romania
*1992 “Award of the Union of Fine Artists for Decorative Art“- Romania
*1992 “Honourable Mention “- Mino – Japan
*1990 “Youth Prize – Decorative Art” – Romania
*1990 “Targa d’Oro“ (Gold Medal) XXXI Concorso Internazionale Della
Ceramica D’arte Gualdo Tadino - Perugia – Italy
*1989 “Targa d’Oro“ (Gold Medal) XXX Concorso Internazionale Della
Ceramica D’arte Gualdo Tadino - Perugia – Italy
*1988 “Scholarship for Decorative Art“ – Bucharest – Romania
Works in Museums and Collections
European Parliament‘s Art Collection Brussels – Belgium
National Museum of Contemporary Art –Bucharest -Romania
“The Clay Studio Collection“ – Philadelphia – United States of America
Museum of Ceramics and Glass – Dorohoi – Romania
Cotroceni National Museum - Bucharest – Romania
Medgidia Art Musuem- Romania
Constanta County Library – Romania
B.C.I.C. Bank – Craiova – Romania
Societe Generale Securites – Bucharest – Romania
ING. Bank N.V. – Bucharest – Romania
The “Support Organization for Overseas Ceramist“ Foundation – Tajimi – Japan
Ogiso School – Tajimi – Japan
“Kano“ High School – Gifu-shi -Japan
“Gudov“ House – Private Collection - Bucharest – Romania
Raiffeisen Bank –Bucharest - Romania
National and Foreign Publications
Info News –Pavel Susara – Tress from Another Planet http:/www.infonews.ro/article74276.html
Aug 21 Sep 11, 2009 The Kingdom of Porcelain - Formula AS http://www.formula- as.ro/2009/883/planete-culturale-30acasa-la-daniela-fainis-11529-print
Jan 2009 Artists Workshops in Bucharest Part 2
May 05, 2008 Casa Lux – Porcelain Miracles – Cristina Foarfa p 212-217
May 07-13, 2008 Academia Catavencu – The Palace with a Porcelain and Stainless Steel Garden-Ioan T Morar
Oct 24, 2007 Adevarul – Mogosoaia Palace – Porcelain Garden and Landscapes
Abstracts http://www.adevarul.ro/articole/2007
August 2007 A Home for Your House – The Fine Virtues of Ceramics – Luana Ibacka
2008 no 801 Formula AS - Cultura – Porcelain Mogosoaia – Valentin Iaco
July 20, 2007 Ziarul Financiar« Ziarul de Duminica » - The Porcelain Grove –
Corneliu Antim
Feb 16, 2007 Ziarul Financiar – Visions of the Kaolin Lady – Corneliu Antim
Apr 28, 2006 Curierul Atenei – The Romanian Embassy in Athens – A Gate Open to Romanians
Oct 23 2003 Romania Libera – At the « Prometheus », Large Scale Ceramics Exhibition (D.S.) p. 7
Oct 21-27, 2003 Academia Catavencu – Sculpture, Porcelain Baubles – Ioan T. Morar p. 22
Aug 03, 2002 Adevarul – A World of Porcelain – F Dobrescu p. 3, http://www.adevarul.ro/articole/2002/o-lume-din-portelan.html
July 08-09, 2002 Insurance Market p. 6
July 13, 2002 Romania Libera – Daniala Faini’ Exhibition at Allianz – Tiriac
Ion Andreita - p. 2
Nov 30, 2001 Ziarul Financiar Ziarul de Duminica – Leaves of Our Lives – Cornel Radu Constantinescu p. 7
Nov 24, 2000 Ziarul Financiar Ziarul de Duminica -Through Someone Else’s Eyes – Cornel
Radu Constantinescu p.7
02-03 2000 Le courrier du centre - Propos recuellis par Simona Modreanu
culturel Roumain
Winter 1999-2000 Millennium III nr. 4 -Workshop of Ideas and Projects for
European Integration and Global Civilisation
7-13 Oct, 1998 Romania Literara -Revenge of the Decorative Arts –
Pavel Susara Fine Review p. 16
Oct 02, 1998 Curentul cultural - Mino ‘98 - Corneliu Antim
Sep 11, 1998 Adevarul – An Exceptional Exhibition - Cornel Radu Constantinescu p. 8
Sep 15, 1998 Romania Literara –The Porcelain Sculpture of Daniela Fainis – Livia Stoenescu
Sep 07, 1998 Curentul – Effigies under the Moon - Lucian Popescu
May 4-10, 1998 Radio Romania –Ideal Beauty – Viorica Ghita Teodorescu
March 17, 1998 Adevarul literar si artistic -Dantesca in White – Cornel Radu Constantinescu p. 7
Dec 08 1997 National Grand Prize at the « International Biennial of
Artistic Ceramics » for Romanian Daniela Fainis - Tudor Octavian p. 6
Nov 14-30, 1997 Memorandum - 5th International Biennial of Artistic Ceramics Aveiro/97
October 1992 Ceramics Monthly -East European Ceramics by Jimmy Clark
June 06, 1991 Romania Literara – An Organ of Tender Touches - Tudor Octavian
Fine Review - p. 17
* Catalogue