This is not a theoretical text. It comes directly from experience.

For a long, long time the Romanian art scene was one directional, controlled, censored and manipulated. It looked the same. The official vision was obligatory and dissidence was rare. Then the 1989 Revolution happened and things changed. It took a while (over 30 years) but diversity is finally here. Drawing is a practice, a medium, a way of thinking, a way of reacting or an activist tool. It can be slow, it can be quick. Large or really tiny. It can be whatever you want it to be. It is also a platform for connection. Practiced by artists from various generations, painters, sculptors, male or female, abstract, figurative, escapist, political, conceptual, sensual, flat, black and white or coloured, pen, pencil, charcoal, sewed, intimate, trashy, exquisite… raw.

Drawing Possibilities brings together historical figures, established artists, emerging, marginal, newcomers… or whatever other label one can attach to an artist (without knowing too much about her or him). It looks like a random selection. But it’s not. Every artist in the show is a master of their art and worked hard to sharpen their skills. We cover all the regions of the country, all ages and genders.

«Do what you can with what you have» was our motto for many years.

If we need categories we can choose something like this:

Abstract Rhythm: Norbert Filep.

Structured Abstract: Róbert Köteles.

Playful Abstract: Gavril Pop.

Funny Pink: George Rosu.

Barely Visible: Sándor Bartha.

Playful Personal: Geta Bratescu.

Full Sensible: Simona Runcan.

Political: Dan Perjovschi, Catalina Nistor.

Social Quotidian: Eduard Constantin.

Analytic: Lia Perjovschi.

Masterful: Tudor Patrascu.

Personal Figurative: Ana Banica, Nectaria Radu.

Experimental Figurative: Andreea Medar.

Healing Process: Gloria Luca.

Pixel Code: Tudor Toader.

Abandon Drawing: in the last second Sorin Vreme removed himself from the show, but it can be a mix of these or none at all. Or a hybrid category where we can put everybody.

Can an obsessive repetitive pencil drawing on paper be a sign of resistance in the age of AI? Can a line portrait be feminist? Can a diagram be anti-patriarchal? Can a text be a drawing? Can a self-portrait be the image of the world?

The Romanian art scene today is short on money, self-exploitative, underfunded with an unclear future and at the same time resilient, dynamic and somehow flamboyant. A perfect situation for Drawing. But we cannot sum it up in one exhibition. Drawing possibilities is one attempt to map the diversity of drawing and its struggle for a purpose in Romania.

There’s a lot of other possible selections. And that is what makes things bearable.