The Path
Duo Exhibition by Diana Nicolaie and Carmen Marin
Time & Location
Oct 26, 7:00 PM – Nov 10, 5:00 PM
New York, 200 E 38th St, New York, NY 10016, USA
About The Event
It’s a busy season for visual arts at the Romanian Cultural Institute, as a string of back-to-back projects keeps the Brâncuși Gallery in special focus! Our next exhibition, entitled THE PATH: FUSION OF TWO WORLDS, INSIDE/OUTSIDE, opens on October 26 with an ingenious showcase of art, design, and lighting, featuring the formidable duo Diana Nicolaie and Carmen Marin in an artistic vis-à-vis curated by Ioana Ciocan, Romania’s most influential curator.
“While different in aesthetic allegiance and technique, the (literally) luminous paintings, installations, and objects presented fuse their radiant energy in a sort of exultation of light, understood both as an ascensional symbol or guiding principle, indicating “the path” to ourselves, and as creative substance, the very material of the works themselves.
Project made in collaboration with ART SAFARI Bucharest.
THE PATH. FUSION OF TWO WORLDS, INSIDE/OUTSIDE
Featuring: Diana Nicolaie & Carmen Marin
Curator: Ioana Ciocan
October 26 – November 10, 2023
Exhibition Opening: Friday, October 26, 2023 | 7-9 PM
Gallery Hours: Monday – Friday 9 AM – 5 PM
Bags: Inside Out, Art Safari x V&A, Londra
A journey into the fascinating history of bags by design
Set design: Diana Nicolaie, interior designer & visual artist
Bags: Inside Out exhibition by Art Safari in collaboration with the V&A, London, impresses with both the exhibits – 300 iconic bags that have made history – and the scenography. A waltz through materials, textures, shapes and volumes, guided by colours, to a world full of messages, celebrities and style.
Exhibition concept by Diana Nicolaie, interior designer & visual artist, is based on the transition in time and space of the visitor, who is guided by the vision and statements of the artists of the time, throughout various historical periods. O chronological walk along the colour trail. From the evolution of 17th century bags in which the elegance of a jewellery-accessory, to bags of a strictly utilitarian. The army, which played an important role in the transition between the historical period and the the transition from the historical to the contemporary, was a trailblazer for the accessory. To this day we are surrounded by shapes and materials, and bags are a statement, a status item, but also a manifesto for sustainability (the famous ocean plastic backpack designed by Stella McCartney).
Among the famous bags on display are the Baguette Fendi purple sequined bag popularized by Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City, Lady Dior inspired by Princess Diana, Kelly Hermès, inspired by Grace Kelly and many other bags bags (Lait de Coco – Chanel/Karl Lagerfeld, Prada in collaboration with Damien Hirst, Louis Vuitton in collaboration with Murakami, a rare bag by Paloma Picasso etc.).
3 main areas of visitor experience
The visitor experience is divided into 3 stages: introduction to the history of the gen, design bold and famous and the manufacturing process. Here you have the opportunity to see, to touch and fully understand the manufacturing process of a bag. The exhibition surprises, delights and captivates the visitor. It makes them want to explore and at the same time retain the essence of the exhibition – the bag – an element present in our lives since ancient times and certainly for a long time to come. Designer Diana Nicolaie has imagined and staged spaces friendly and warm spaces, where the presented objects shine.
Diana Nicolaie, interior designer & visual artist:
“Through my design concept I sought to produce a revelation in the public’s mind.
The bag – from an accessory worn under clothing to hide objects of to an overt identifier of status and iconic performance piece and coveted spectacle. It is, in fact, the story of the evolution of this everyday item throughout time. It is incredible how over so many years, this object has changed so much in size, approach, materials, colours and yet it is still a fixture in the our lives.
Even though it’s bags, associated more with women, the show doesn’t exclusively aimed at the female segment. It is a show for everyone, which takes us on a fascinating journey that would be worth seeing even for children, and it’s interesting in its variety of shapes and sizes. The Bags: Inside Out exhibition has around the world (Belgium, England, Asia) and it is a great opportunity to have it in the heart of Bucharest, at Art Safari. It is worth seeing all the categories and you I confess that my favourite is the one dedicated to unconventional bags.”
A show of art, design, lights and olfactory experiences
First Diana Nicolaie exhibition, curator Ioana Ciocan, 4-31 May 2023, ARCUB
The debut exhibition of Diana Nicolaie, interior and product designer, “Light. An airy view point of density”, curated by Ioana Ciocan, opened on the evening of 4 May and can be visited until 31 May at ARCUB. The first show signed by Diana Nicolaie presents a selection of 8 works depicting the most important symbols of light, the leitmotif of the artist’s creation. The works, in shades of white, combine painting, structural elements and light, all complemented by a special olfactory experience.
“In my vision, light is the core that unites perspectives, feelings, different worlds into a unified whole and leads the viewer to introspection. Light merges perspectives on what we feel and experience, transforming a moment, an emotion, an image into a unique and defining experience. What I have tried to encompass in my work is precisely how I can fuse sculpture and painting to convey a message with light. We each perceive images, textures, ideas differently, but light is always constant. It is light that gives the emotion of an image outlined by shadows and colours.” – Diana Nicolaie, artist.
“Over the centuries, artists have played with light, explored and exploited it both as a subject and especially as a tool to create moods and capture the beauty of nature. Light determines colours and shadows and darkens or brightens a canvas. Light has been essential in all styles of painting, from the Renaissance to Impressionism to abstract art. Diana Nicolaie’s work blends design with art, tames materials and textures, brings out unsuspected links between form and emotion, and, above all, has an exciting ability to trigger emotions in viewers. Diana combines natural and synthetic materials and challenges the perfection of Renaissance scenes and sculptures to a play of design and geometry. Light is the coagulating factor in her art, but also in her personality.” – Ioana Ciocan, curator.
Diana Nicolaie’s first solo exhibition, “Light. An airy view point of density”, presents a series of works inspired by the artist’s background in design, with a special scenography. Light is used in a unique way to highlight the subject matter of the works and to enliven visitors’ senses, an invitation by the artist to the essence of each work. Diana Nicolaie often uses tone-in-tone, either white/white or black/black, in her practice to put the spotlight on textures. The works in her first exhibition are exclusively in shades of white.
Among the guests present at the opening were Diana Baciuna, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Culture, Liviu Jicman, President of the Romanian Cultural Institute, cultural personalities, journalists and content creators. The Mayor General of the Capital, Nicușor Dan, also visited the exhibition.
About Diana Nicolaie
Diana Nicolaie is a graduate of Product Design – University of Architecture and Urbanism “Ion Mincu” in Bucharest. An artist of objects, she has dedicated herself to the profession of interior & product design since graduation, embodying emotion in shapes and colors with each unique product she creates. Now she decides to explore and reveal the artistic side she feels attracted to since childhood. Diana Nicolae is inspired by the sculptural and architectural nature of the design objects she enters into dialogue with, by natural raw materials and contemporary compositions.
She creates distinctive, monumental pieces, often true installations on canvas, that provoke an immediate reaction from the viewer. The art created by Diana Nicolaie is based on playing with varied shapes and textures, strong volumetrics and mixed media. The artist uses the play of light and shadow as an open invitation to the viewer to her artistic universe. At times, she chooses to directly or suggestively introduce human presence into her works.
Density is the relationship between the mass of a substance and its physical size.