SIMONA RUNCAN

"No anecdote, no event, nothing sensational, not even the smallest human presence, just the fascination of the trace left by it."

- Simona Runcan

Simona Runcan’s paintings still seem to come into being, even though they were started more than 30 years ago. They are still taking shape: the cones, the cylinders, and the other figures that keep on reappearing in her paintings, all seem to be changing as one is looking at them. Ever so slightly leaning or ever so slowly falling apart. Runcan would make these figures using various pieces of fabric – twisting them, turning them, and tying them up. Or by simply letting the fabric wrap around an object that she had made - hiding it and letting the outlines of it get blurred. She would arrange these figures on a horizontal line and photograph them prior to painting them.

The painting ending up offering a matter-of-fact observation of what are not facts, but something that is concealed rather than revealed. The painting becoming as much about what can not be seen or the tension of the fabric that could come undone. The painting still holding onto the energy of instability that these figures initially were in possession of. They are neither firmly fixed to the ground nor entirely finding their place within the pictorial space. Their folds, their fine lines, and their shifting hues that provide them with plasticity, are set against a solid background that so willingly is collapsing any notion of depth or nuance.

While Simona Runcan had several solo exhibitions in Romania and equally had works included in numerous group exhibitions abroad during her life time, her practice remained little known and un-acknowledged at the time of her death in 2007. It was only in 2016 that a comprehensive retrospective dedicated to the works of Simona Runcan finally took place at the Mogoșoaia Cultural Centre, on the outskirts of Bucharest.

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Simona Runcan (b. 1942 - d. 2007, Bucharest Romania) lived and worked in Bucharest, Romania, and Paris, France. Simona Runcan graduated in 1966 from the Graphic Arts Department of the Fine Arts Institute in Bucharest.

Selected solo exhibitions include; “Inner Shadows, Wrapped Shadows”, Ivan Gallery, Bucharest, Romania (2023); “Silent Cohabitations”, STANDARD (OSLO), Oslo, Norway (2021); “Simona Runcan. Retrospective”, Palatele Brâncovenești Cultural Centre in Mogoșoaia, Romania (2016); “Interior, icoane, înclinări / Interior, Icons, Inclinations”, The Art Museum in Cluj, Romania; UAP Gallery, Bistrița, Romania (2003); “Lazăr în așteptare / Awaiting Lazarus”, The Evangelical Church in Herina, Romania (2003); “Interior, icoane, înclinări / Interior, Icons, Inclinations”, Etaj 3/4 Gallery, Bucharest, Romania (1999); “Lazăr în așteptare / Awaiting Lazarus”, Catacomba Gallery, Bucharest, Romania (1994); “Naturi moarte / Still-lives”, Simeza Gallery, Bucharest, Romania (1986); “Legile echilibrului / The Principles of Equilibrium”, Simeza Gallery, Bucharest, Romania (1979); Crème fraîche Gallery, Birkerød, Denmark (1978); Charlottenborg udstillingen Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark (1978); Apollo Gallery with Eva Suto & Nicolae Roșu, Bucharest, Romania (1972). Runcan’s work is held in the collection of The National Museum of Art, Oslo, Norway