Nicu Darastean

"A quick look upon the work of N. Darastean could lead us to the surrealistic style (common objects, real images of the known world, distributed in the structure of the painting by random, absurd or delirious connections). But behind the disorder there is the recovery of the perspective, the insinuation of a secret atmosphere, with multiple light sources, hidden from the eye and indicating through the title a step into the mythology, in the biblical parable or in the world of heroes from the world literature, sometimes from history. As a postmodern artist, Darastean thinks suggestively in the spirit of the metaphysical painting but through the obsessions of the modern man (power, violence, sex) whose moral and philosophical confusion could find its solution in the wish to achieve the saving light of faith." (Deliu Petroiu- Art critique, 1999)

The suggested universe, strange and irrational, full of paradoxes and perplexities, absurd, tirelessly offers surprising shapes and connections. Surprises, surprises… A great expense of imagination and fantasy intended to shock. They will anyway, but in a different way than in reality.
The generalized controversy addressed to the reality gives way to the possibility of parallel worlds as if Leibnitz had never said that our world was the best of all possible worlds. And yet, towards the end, only the shapes are strange because the various images suggested are presented in old and widely spread cultural themes.
The repertoire of graphical shapes is guided by Nicu Darastean in such a way that the subject is letting itself be read and even the most clear aspect of the idea can be read.
The peculiarity of shapes, driven within the limits of coherence, does not reach the level of encoding but, on the contrary, allows us to feel the intent of a much more complex communication." (Ioan Iovan- Art Critique, 2004)

Bucharest:
 March 2005 - "La vie en rose", World Trade Plaza
 November 2004 - "Symphonie fantastique", World Trade Plaza
 Sept – Oct 2004 – “The Splendid Romania”, Baku Art Gallery
 March 2004 - "Scent of a Woman", World Trade Plaza

Timisoara:
 1994 - European Convention of Science- Fiction, First Gallery and Bastion Gallery

CURRENTLY EXHIBITING IN PUBLIC GALLERIES IN:

Timisoara: Carola’s Art Gallery, Helios Art Gallery, ART Gallery
Bucharest: Gold Art Gallery, Baku Art Gallery and Dominus Gallery

My childhood was very important for my development as an artist. I was born on April 2, 1971 in a small Romanian village surrounded by forests, a settlement where no modern facility had ever existed - not even electricity. I grew up imagining the “outside world”, making my own toys out of wood and clay, watching and studying nature. When I was 7 my family moved to a nearby larger village. There I started to broaden my horizons but at the same time lose my childhood. I started to discover civilization, as it was, and many times I had a feeling of “deja-vu”: seeing that things I had only imagined before actually existed.
I spent my teenage years preparing for a respectable career in electronics, but the influence of my grandfather, my first art teacher, a very good folk artist with an authentic aesthetic sense, was starting to come out. After high school I realized that I had to dedicate myself to the art of painting so I started to attend a local Graphic Art School. There I showed my professor a few paintings which looked so much like the works of Vasarely, Dali, Magritte and de Chirico that the professor asked me whether I had seen their works before. Having only read books about renaissance art and nothing about modern paintings, I started searching for information. Then I began my own art history course.
After studying graphic art I decided to expand my view of art by studying design. I chose design because the study of art was too constrained by the work methods of our art teachers. Unfortunately there is no surrealist art school in the world and surrealism is still overlooked by professors who are too busy with postmodernist art. Studying design helped me indirectly by developing my abilities of projecting a surrealist atmosphere through perspective and projective drawing and also making me familiar with new art techniques. During that time I perfected my watercolors, icons and graphic art style.
Traveling through the Netherlands in the last few years raised my interest for the hyperrealism of the still lives of Flemish painters. Then I began to study the fantastic realism of Breughel and Bosch, of Carel Willink and Pyke Koch and the metaphysics of Magritte and Delvaux. Learning from the experiences of other artists and adding my view of the world I developed, in time, my own surrealist style.

I believe the world is too empty, artistically speaking. If every ancestor had left us a page of a journal, a poem, a statue, a painting or just a scratching on a wall, our cultural heritage would have been immense and we would have understood our roots much better.

In order to be a part of the world’s cultural heritage I have tried to tell my story and using images I have put into these paintings everything I wanted to say. Surrealism has been a challenge for me: not only have I needed advanced technical skills, like the old masters, but also a good and vast imagination and some knowledge of philosophy, history, symbolism and psychology.

I like to think that my works are a mélange of surreal, metaphysic, fantastic realism and narrative art. I’m not an oneiric painter - I try to exchange information with the people who see my works. There is a story in almost every painting. If you go beyond my surreal paintings I am sure you will find a hidden poem and a piece of one's thoughts, no matter who you are, where you come from or where you are heading to. A surreal painting has neither boundaries, nor age… it goes beyond space or time and doesn't need a dictionary.

Bucharest:
 2004- Casa Vernescu Art Gallery
 2000- U-Art Gallery
 1999- ROMANIA - UNESCO Club
 1999, 1995- French Institute
 1995- Municipal Gallery

Timisoara:
 2005- Carola's Art Gallery
 2005- City Hall of Timisoara
 2005- Banc Post Gallery
 2001, 1998- ART Gallery
 1998- Expo Noi Gallery
 1996- Acces Gallery

Drobeta Turnu-Severin:
 1996- Th. Costescu Cultural Centre

Halmagiu:
 1992- Cultural Centre