Baudelaire rightly argued that the "absolute comic" required a degree of innocence to maintain its potent mixture of the strange and the common. Serban Ionescu‘s pictorial inventions straddle the space between comedy, tragedy, bazaar and romanticism. A hybridization of classical and contemporary influence, the work and demonstrates a distinctive style. Bridge gallery is pleased to present Secret History. Serban Ionescu’s vision of Romanian folklore, alchemy and mythology mixed with reverberations of youth unde... Read more

Baudelaire rightly argued that the “absolute comic” required a degree of innocence to maintain its potent mixture of the strange and the common.

Serban Ionescu‘s pictorial inventions straddle the space between comedy, tragedy, bazaar and romanticism. A hybridization of classical and contemporary influence, the work and demonstrates a distinctive style. Bridge gallery is pleased to present Secret History. Serban Ionescu’s vision of Romanian folklore, alchemy and mythology mixed with reverberations of youth under Ceausescu’s Romania. A crossroads for the supernaturally tinged parts comingled with popular culture: hammer horror in one direction, utopian dreams that never were, in another, sinister resonances, uncanny dissonances and the world beyond. Serban Ionescu’s unique new works make the world seem exuberant. Ionescu’s paintings, drawings and sculptures contain quirky, amusing imagery along with a painterly abstraction. In the midst of our time when purposeful intent is frequently considered dead, or if not dead then at least a failure at communicating anything of importance to society, works like Ionescu’s remind everyone about the vitality art can have in the service of an individualistic vision.