From photography documenting the Romanian diaspora to exhibitions showcasing artistic practices drawing on current events, here is a selection of shows on view in Bucharest.

Ștefan Bertalan - In Tune with the World

Until May 3, Museum of Recent Art (MARe)

An essential figure of the artistic scene in Timișoara, Ștefan Bertalan was one of the founders of Grupul 111, the first experimental art group in communist Romania, and also co-founded the group Sigma, alongside Constantin Flondor, Doru Tulcan, Elisei Rusu, Ion Gaita, and Lucian Codreanu. His practice “explored the relationship between humans, nature, and technology, observing the world as an organic system held in a fragile balance between order and chaos.”

The exhibition highlights the subjects and processes that shaped the artist’s research and explorations: his early studies and works in Cluj-Napoca; the period in Timișoara, where he studied and taught between 1970 and 1981; his forced exile in Öhringen, Germany, between 1986 and 2012; and the return to Timișoara.

It is the second stage of the retrospective dedicated to Ștefan Bertalan, following the inaugural presentation at Art Encounters in Timișoara.

Pavel Brăila - Echoes of Harmony and Silent Cries

Until April 4, Gaep

The artist, known for associating mythological elements and ancient rituals with major geopolitical events, is at his second solo exhibition with Gaep. The exhibition features a new series of works, namely glass sculptures, ceramic objects, and paintings, seen as “containers of grief and solidarity.” In the words of the artist, the exhibition “acts as a reminder of the persistent specter of pain and searches for a mythological solution for achieving peace.”

Brăila, who was selected to represent Moldova at this year’s Venice Biennale, has participated in major international art exhibitions and film festivals. He is one of the few artists selected twice for the contemporary art exhibition documenta (documenta 11, Kassel, 2002, and documenta 14, Kassel and Athens, 2017). He also took part in Manifesta 10 (St. Petersburg, 2014) and created the artistic concept for the first Moldovan Pavilion at the World Expo (Milan, 2015). His film Definitively Unfinished was awarded at the Oberhausen International Film Festival 2009. His works have been featured in solo or group shows at Neue Nationalgalerie (Berlin), Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam), Tate Modern (London), The Renaissance Society (Chicago), Kölnischer Kunstverein, Moderna Museet (Stockholm), and many more. In recent years, his work has been shown at the Art Encounters Biennial (Timișoara), Lutnița (Chișinău and Ustia), ERSTE Foundation (Vienna), Neue Galerie Graz, and Centrala (Birmingham), among others.

Gaep is set to host next a solo show of Vlad Nancă, scheduled to open on April 24. Nancă is one of the artists Gaep recently announced it would represent, alongside Roberta Curcă and Vlad Albu.

Cosmin Bumbuţ & Elena Stancu – Away

Until April 19, National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC)

In November 2013, journalist Elena Stancu and photographer Cosmin Bumbuţ moved into a campervan to be able to work on documentary projects, and, since 2019, they have been documenting the Romanian communities in the diaspora. So far, they have published reports on seasonal workers in Spain, Germany, and England, tourism employees in Portugal, farmers in Norway, naval electricians in Denmark, builders in Belgium, researchers in Sweden, students in the Netherlands, and women caring for the elderly in Italy.

Away, the project on display at MNAC, combines documentary photography and reportage bits, explanatory texts, and installations inspired by the daily life of migrants as documented in travels in 12 countries. “Our project explores the fragility of the notion of 'home' and the condition of those who live between worlds,” photographer Cosmin Bumbuţ explains.

The project was nominated in 2025 for the True Story Award, in 2023 for the European Press Prize, received a Pulitzer Center fellowship in 2021, and several Romanian photography and journalism awards. In 2025, it was exhibited at the Cluj Art Museum during TIFF, in 2024 at the Romanian Peasant Museum in Bucharest and at the Literaturhaus Berlin, and in 2021 at the Venice Architecture Biennale, in the Romanian pavilion.

Roger Ballen - Shadows of the Mind

March 26 - May 7, Scânteia+

This retrospective exhibition, curated by Hercules Papaioannou, brings the works of photographer Roger Ballen to Romania for the first time. It covers several stages of Ballen’s career and encompasses eight photographic series, tracing “the evolution from the documentary style of his early works to the psychological theatre that came to define his practice in the early 2000s, and ultimately reaching a new phase of the Ballenesque aesthetic—marked by the use of color—through works from the series Spirits and Spaces.”

The project is a traveling exhibition that has been presented, in various formats, in more than twelve cultural institutions worldwide, including Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem (2005), Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris (2006), Triennale Milano (2009), Bozar in Brussels (2010), Istanbul Museum of Modern Art (2017), and most recently, in 2025, at the Benaki Museum in Athens.

Ballen’s work has received numerous distinctions, including Photographer of the Year at Rencontres d’Arles (2002), Artist of the Year awarded by Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin (2014), and Best Photo Book at PHotoESPAÑA (2001). His works are included in more than 60 museum collections around the world, including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Getty Museum, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Tate Britain, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Lia Perjovschi & Dan Perjovschi – Draft for a Joint Retrospective

April 3 - July 26, Arcub

The show marks 40 years of artistic practice and brings together Dan Perjovschi's drawings and mural interventions, inspired by current political events and everyday details, alongside the research projects and conceptual installations developed by Lia Perjovschi.

Their first retrospective of Lia and Dan Perjovschi was held in 2007 at the Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, USA. They have had joint solo exhibitions at the Art Museums of Skopje, Brașov, and Seoul (Total Museum), at art centers such as Rupert Vilnius, IFA Stuttgart, and IFA Berlin, Espai Castelló, Parasite Ljubljana, White Cuib Cluj, Peninsula Plymouth University, Stacion Pristina, B5 Studio Târgu Mureș, tranzit.ro Cluj, Kunsthalle Göppingen, Kunstraum Innsbruck, Casa Tranzit Cluj, Magma Sfântu Gheorghe, Club Electroputere Craiova, and KulturKontakt Vienna, as well as at the Christine König (Vienna), Michel Rein (Paris), Espaivisor (Valencia), or Orizont (Bucharest) galleries. They are laureates of the Princess Margriet Award of the European Cultural Foundation in Amsterdam (2012).

They have taken part in the Art Biennials of Sydney, São Paulo, and Periferic Iași, as well as the Zona Performance Art Triennial in Timișoara. They have also been included in group exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou, MoMA New York, WKV Stuttgart, Jankelevitch Museum La Louvière, Walker Art Center Minneapolis, Osage Foundation Hong Kong, Royal College of Art London, Moderna Galerija Ljubljana, NBK Berlin, Rotor Graz, Jumex Foundation Mexico City, Zachęta National Gallery Warsaw, and Cabaret Voltaire Zürich.

Andreea Ilie – Laboratoriya

Until April 4, Jecza Gallery Bucharest

The exhibition, the artist’s first solo one with the gallery, gathers sculptures investigating the way the Communist regime approached children as “a living material that needed to be molded with scientific precision.” Through research and travel in the former Soviet space, the artist finds “a concrete architectural reality, an ensemble of concrete structures where political aims have been translated into matter and space.”

Andreea Ilie is a visual artist whose practice draws on the connection between architecture and the human psyche. Her work explores social buildings and shared spaces, focusing on their influence on the modern individual and on collective life.

Andrei Gamarț - Chimera

Until April 4, Mobius Gallery

This solo show aims to explore the limits of perception with a new series of works “constructed from elements extracted from the chaos of our everyday lives,” curator Michele Bressan explains. Rainer Maria Rilke’s remark that "every angel is terrifying" is a key to reading Gamarț’s work, which is inhabited by figures who conjure apparition-like forms.

Andrei Gamarț, who was born in the Republic of Moldova, lives and works in Bucharest. His paintings, drawings, and graphic works reveal “fractures of a world that seems suspended in-between time and space.” The major themes of his practice tackle the relation between memory, matter, innocence, and error. He previously had solo shows in museums and galleries in Romania, as well as international projects in New York, Germany, and Budapest.

R:Eminescu

March 26 – July 19, Art Safari

One of the several exhibitions at the current edition of Art Safari, it looks at the body of artistic representations of Romania’s national poet, Mihai Eminescu, and the themes derived from his work, as they are illustrated in Romanian art starting with the end of the 19th century, from Constantin Lecca to Gheorghe Anghel and Corneliu Brudașcu to Mircea Cantor.

The exhibition covers the representation of Eminescu's figure, investigating how he became a symbol of Romanian culture long before January 15 was officially declared National Culture Day in 2010, and a major source of inspiration for artists drawing on the themes of his work.

This edition of Art Safari also includes the exhibitions Vermont and the Charm of the Belle Époque, which follows the artistic journey of Romanian painter Nicolae Vermont, and Felix Aftene – Diary, a window into the creative process of the artist.

Ghenadie Popescu - Rezidual

Until April 4, Galeria Posibilă

The exhibition, which was presented at the end of last year in Krems, at Galerie Stadtpark, centers on Ghenadie Popescu’s long-term work Childhood Memories (2018 - ongoing), which addresses the deportations from Bessarabia to Siberia carried out under the Stalinist regime between 1941 and 1951. The exhibition presents interviews with survivors, recorded by the artist and translated into stop-motion animations.

Ghenadie Popescu, who was born in Florești, in the Republic of Moldova, and is based in Chișinău, is interested in local (post-communist) identity, tradition, and geopolitical entanglements. He studied at the Academy of Music, Theatre and Fine Arts in Chișinău, Painting Department. Since 2012, he has focused primarily on personal stop-motion animation projects. 

(Opening photo: Valiantsin Suprunovich | Dreamstime.com)

simona@romania-insider.com