Radu Comșa

The work of Radu Comșa (b. 1975, Sibiu, Romania; lives and works in Cluj-Napoca) begins with painting, although painting seldom presents itself directly. It arrives disguised, delegated to other materials, entrusted to objects that carry out its tasks in its absence.

Throughout the work, familiar roles are quietly abandoned. Surfaces wander off. Structures become protagonists. A support develops ambitions of its own. What was once background moves to the foreground; what appeared essential slips away altogether. The resulting works possess the peculiar clarity of things that have exchanged identities without announcing it.

Comșa's practice unfolds through a succession of transfers. Decisions migrate from one place to another. Color settles where structure should be. A textile inherits the responsibilities of a canvas. A wooden framework begins to behave like a picture. Nothing appears unstable, yet little remains where convention would place it.

This persistent reshuffling has produced a body of work animated by a subtle refusal of fixed assignments. Painting survives every transformation, though often under an assumed name. It reappears as a stand-in, an accomplice, a decoy. What changes is not its presence, but the location of its responsibilities.

Solo exhibitions include: Anagrama, Schugar Rotariu, Frankfurt am Main (2025); inter-versions (curator Nicola Trezzi), CCA Tel Aviv-Yafo, Tel-Aviv (2024); CHROMBINATORICS, SABOT, Cluj-Napoca (2024); Blue, Invitro art space, Cluj-Napoca (2024); Counterpoint, The Art Museum of Cluj-Napoca (2022); Reductionist Debate in 4 Colours (curator Călin Dan), National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC), Bucharest (2020); Après le Disco, Galerie Emmanuel Hervé, Paris (2017); Basa Walikan Batik Transcriptions, KAYU/ Lucie Fontaine, Bali, Indonesia (2015); Things as they are, SABOT, Cluj-Napoca (2012).

Group exhibitions and biennials include: Lost in the Moment That Follows, Ways of Collecting: Ovidiu Șandor Collection, Kunsthalle Prague, Prague (2023); The Monster, the Square, and the Laughter, MARe / Museum of Recent Art, Bucharest (2024); Tender is the Night, NEO - VogelArt Lab, Nice (2024); I Despise All Movement that Displaces Line, Conector / OFF-space, Cluj-Napoca (2023); A room in the city [Une chambre en ville], Salon du Salon, Marseille (2021); GPS. Post-System Geometries in Contemporary Art, MARe / Museum of Recent Art, Bucharest (2019); Art Capital - Visual Arts Festival and Biennale, Ferenczy Museum, Szentendre (2018); Changing Places, ICA-D, Institute of Contemporary Art, Dunaújváros (2018); Listen to the Form, Panthera Today, Brussels (2017); Art Encounters biennial/ Appearance & Essence, Timișoara (2015); Boogie Woogie, Trafó Gallery, Budapest (2014); A few grams of Red, Yellow, Blue, Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw (2014); Hotspot Cluj – New Romanian Art, Arken Museum, Copenhagen (2013); ORIGINAL/COPY I, Peles Empire, London (2012); Estate, Marianne Boesky, New York (2012); (0)ikea, Hydra School Projects, Hydra, Greece (2012); European Travellers – Art from Cluj today, Műcsarnok | Kunsthalle Budapest (2012); Play dice would be nice, Gaudel de Stampa, Paris (2012); Modern Talking, The Art Museum of Cluj-Napoca (2012); Altered Translation, CAR projects, Bologna, Italy (2011); Calling All the Stations, National Gallery in Pristina, Kosovo (2009); Prague Biennale 4, Expanded Painting 3, Prague (2009); Romanian Art Today/ The Artist and his Supporters, Espace Tajan, Paris (2008); Donumenta, How to Build a Universe That Does Not Fall Apart Two Days Later, Leeren Beutel Gallery, Regensburg (2007); Prague Biennale 3, Expanded Painting 2, Prague (2007).