Every time I write these reviews, I can only ascertain, much to my surprise, that it has been a more productive year than the one before it, only this time I know exactly why that was. The beginning of the war, the desire to launch an artistic front against the aggression, but also a few European expeditions at the largest art events in the world – documenta15 in Kassel and the Venice Biennale – were all part of my inspiration in 2022.
The war became an integral part of project Bessarabia, which I've been working on for several years, in an attempt to recover the memory of the refuge of 1940, when my grandmother became a war refugee and ended up in Romania with her family while fleeing the Soviet army. A few days before the start of the war in Ukraine, I had finished a large scale artwork portraying a train with refugees leaving Bessarabia being attacked by rocks thrown by the pro-Soviets. The artpiece entitled They were throwing rocks at us became the central focus of the exhibition Bessarabia within PAV @ FITS2022.
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In august, I spent a week at Documenta15, one of the greatest art exhibitions in the world, which takes place once every 5 years in Kassel, Germany.
I've written extensively about Documenta15 in this article.
September marked another fantastic expedition, this time at the Venice Biennale.
In October, I was invited by ALEG (the association for gender freedom and equality) to tell the story behind project Bessarabia within the Gender Equality Festival, alongside Ukrainian and Syrian refugees.
Meanwhile, I have started a series of pieces on the war that I am still working on. Here are a series of sketches. It was in this project that I had first used charcoal as the main working medium and I have to admit I absolutely love it.
In November, I recreated a bunch of artworks from the book Great Women Artists (2019, Phaidon).
Last year, my collaboration with Oana Barbu aka Eyecandy Monsters resulted in transforming Eliza from a 2D sticker to a 3D collectable object.
Eliza is still available for purchase! If you love her and want to support my work, please write me a message at info@sorinatomuletiu.ro or on social media.
In the end, I'll leave you with a series of drawings and sketches from 2022.
Thank you for your support in 2022 and I hope you won't lose your appetite for art in 2023! Support independent artists as much as you can! Rough times are ahead.
