The Black Spheres Of Safety First! – Assemblage Art Gallery
Safety First is an ongoing artistic research project investigating safety as an affective construct, developed through painting, installation, and spatial arrangements.
the object as a tactile extension of the canvas
The Black Spheres represent the tactile extensions of the “Safety First!” paintings, projecting the conceptual research into the tridimensional space. Comprising over 150 unique objects, this modular assemblage installation acts as an “anxious emotional proliferation”. Featured in 2025 at DalgART (Craiova) and Calea Victoriei 91-93 Gallery (Bucharest), these spheres utilize process art and layers of erosion and materiality to explore the “failed schematics” of memory and the quiet disquiet of security.
ALSO VIEW: PAINTINGS GALLERY | DALGART EXHIBITION | AFTERMATH EXHIBITION | INSTALLATION FULL RESEARCH DOSSIER | PRESS + VIDEO
Concept
“Safety First!” forces an encounter with the paradoxical poetics of safety and maps the “quiet disquiet” that resides within moments presumed to be secure, maping the visceral feeling of anxiety through painting and assemblage, post minimalistic Process Art. It is an ever-evolving core unit of research within Roxana Donaldson`s practice as a Memory Analyst painter where paintings form the central core, while the assemblage objects (black spheres) serve as tactile extensions into the three-dimensional realm.
Exhibitions
In 2025, Safety First was on view at DalgART Craiova and at Calea Victoriei 91-93 Gallery, Bucharest.
The artist continues to update it by adding new pieces that recreate a new anxiety proposition with each new space and display.
Structure
The visual structure serves as a “chaotic cage” designed to preserve unsettling emotional contents. Using recycled sheets as a primary substrate, each painting becomes a physical archive of time, marked by multiple layers of erosion, schematics, and conceptual inscriptions, and is extended into space through over 150 black spheres.
roxana DONALDSON 