Sebastian Hosu

My painting depicts reality – my reality. This also encompasses my idea of nature, which is in turn an expression of this reality. I see nature as a presence in painting that is archetypical and not illustrative. But what is nature? Something that leads the way and where we belong? Still? Or a long-forgotten experience, replaced and superseded by the virtual reality of our modern times?

In my work, I seek to answer these questions not by the means of rational capacity, but through art. In my paintings, memories of a natural presence emerge. The bodies of humans, animals and also the landscapes are imbued with something primordial – as if the clash of nature and culture never happened. Taking a closer look, one may notice that the bodies, albeit fragmentary and incomplete, are not disfigured or even mutilated. They are being absorbed by a swooping energy, merging with the landscape just as the scenery becomes the body in that they nurture each other. Thus, the hierarchy between space and figure is dissolved.

But the figure resists. Due to its physical severity / heaviness it withstands the tendency of nothingness to devour it whole. In my paintings, this severity / heaviness is endowed with a physical presence: oil colour brushed on through pastos establishes its own physicality. Also, the format of my paintings play an important psychological role: for me, the work with larger formats makes the immediate physical interaction with the canvas come alive. It is not a nostalgic retrospection on the condition before the clash between nature and culture. Also, it is no illusion of an ideal world. The composition lives and breathes in its instability which through its restlessness fractures the desired harmony between ‘green body’ and wideness of space that are shown in a dialectical discrepancy. I have been occupied with this restlessness or dynamic in the art of painting for a long time.

Awards:

2017 «The Elisabeth Greenshields Award » , Canada

2015 1st Prize «10. Kunstpreis Wesseling», Germany
2015 1st Prize «ArtWalk», Leipzig, Germany
2014-2016 KAAD Stipendium, Germany
2012 Elisabeth Greenshields Award, Canada
2012 «Price Horlait», Brussels, Belgium
2012 Finalist «Herelbeke Prijs Beeldende Kunsten», Belgium
2006 1st Prize Drawing on ecology, Satu Mare, Romania
2006 Mention in the National Painting Olympiad Competition, Timisoara, Romania