ARTISTIC STATEMENT – [IDENTITY SCAN]
Art is process. Memory is a chaotic beast — without a cage, it either flees or devours.
My practice is an ongoing archaeology of anonymous memory: the memory of ordinary, unnamed individuals, preserved in objects, textiles, documents, visceral emotions, and gestures that history does not record. I work with found and constructed materials — reclaimed fabrics, ceramic forms, handwritten documents, everyday remnants — treating each as evidence of a life that existed. Rooted in process art, arte povera, post-minimalism and conceptualism, my work moves between excavation and reconstruction. The resulting installations are modular and reconfigurable — each iteration a selective reassembly of the archive in response to a specific space, a specific context, a specific memory that needs a cage. I am a reclaimer of the mundane searching for meaning in the trivial, in what has been used, worn, and discarded. I do not describe. I do not tell stories. I do not illustrate. I paint on reclaimed domestic textiles, and I build objects. Beyond the canvas, my practice involves a systematic analysis of the image; as a researcher, I document memory and human affective experience. My laboratory is the studio. The case study, the gaze.
SELECTED TRACK – [ARCHIVE VIEW]
MAJOR ART INTERVENTIONS
•2026 | threads+traces / noduri+semne (Solo Show: Installation, Painting, Assemblage), Galeria Brateanu, Timsoara
•2025 | The Aftermath of Safety (Solo Show: Installation, Painting, Assemblage), Calea Victoriei 91-93 Gallery, Bucharest.
•2025 | Safety First! (Solo Show), Dalgart, Craiova.
•2023 | Time Patterns in the Library (Site-Specific Installation), Carol 53 Gallery, Bucharest.
•2023 | Here They Lived (Painting & Object Installation), Blue Biennale / Apollonia Cultural Bank, Brașov.
•2021 | Fragmentum (Painting, installation, Research-Based), Ghetărie Gallery, Centrul de Cultura Palatele Brâncovenesti de la Portile Bucurestiului, Mogoșoaia.
•2019 | #clorofilia (Solo Show, Painting), Cabinetul Cultural, Craiova.
SELECTED ART GROUP EXHIBITIONS & FAIRS
•2025 | MoBu Art Fair, Represented by Gallery 88, Bucharest.
•2025 | IdentitA-E-R 3, Gallery 9, Brașov.
•2024 | Soulscapes ed. IV, International Art Group Exhibition, Brâncovenesc Palaces, Mogoșoaia.
•2024 | Mirabilis Hortus – In Omni Tempore, Apollonia Cultural Bank, Brașov.
•2023 | Weed Up, International Art Group Exhibtion, Dalgart Gallery, Bucharest.
•2021 | Bruises, International Mail Art Group Exhibition, Galateca, Bucharest.
•2021 | Fragmentum, the White Tower, International Contemporary Art Biennale, Brașov.
RESEARCH & PUBLICATIONS | THEORETICAL VALIDATION
•2026 (Upcoming) | Mirrored Chimaeras: A Meta Modern Research on the Visuality of the Human-Plant Hybrids (2 volumes).
•2022 | Art Intervention: The Childhood of the Matriarch Elephant, Arta Magazine (Issue dedicated to the Venice Biennale).
•2021 | Fragmentum (Article, research-based art), Observator Cultural.
•2021 | Research articles, Museikon
•2019 | Moscow Reporter Vol II(Article, Mozaicul).
EDUCATION & ACADEMIC STATUS
•MA in Visual Studies (Critical Plant Studies), CESI – Center of Excellence in Image Study, University of Bucharest.
•BA – University of Bucharest, Art, Applied Aesthetics/Modern Languages
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
2024–2025 | Approved External Mentor Willem de Kooning Academy (WDKA), Rotterdam Illustration & Image Analysis — formally approved institutional collaboration.
2007–present | Founder & Director, 24/7art NGO Art, Culture & Education — Romania
– Independent cultural structure dedicated to art mentorship and education. Activities include mentoring programs, studio courses, and exhibition organization, addressed to students, emerging artists, and professional audiences.
2005–2017 | European Civilization & Art History Lecturer International English School Bucharest
– Twelve years of teaching art historical theory and European cultural frameworks.
roxana DONALDSON 