Codrina Laura Ionita

PROJECT NAME

Brâncuși

or the Rediscovery of the World

Engraving, Imprint, collography

DATE

19-27/02/2026

My works dedicated to Constantin Brâncuși are inspired by motifs and elements specific to his art—more precisely, by the silhouette of The Kiss (Cumințenia pământului), the modular structure of the Endless Column, the line of the Bird in Space, and the undulating forms of the fish in water. These stylized structures are rendered through printmaking techniques such as collography, etching (aquaforte and aquatint), drypoint, and carborundum, printed on handmade paper or traditional printmaking paper.

Over these forms and structures inspired by Brâncuși’s work, I have imprinted vegetal elements—plants, leaves, flowers, grasses—inked and pressed into the surface, forming the image of a garden or a field in which subtle suggestions of Brâncuși’s works emerge among the vegetation.

My works attempt to capture the close relationship between nature and art—a relationship that accompanies the sculptor’s entire oeuvre, from his connection to the village, to the green park in which the works at Târgu Jiu are installed, and to the nature that the works themselves evoke through their ability to reveal the essence of things, of the world.

— PROJECT NAME

Sings of Dwelling

Painting, Watercolor, Drawing

— DATE

3.02-2.03.2026

Curator Maria Pașc:

“The word ‘inhabiting’ comes from the Latin locare—to place, to set in order, to arrange. Not ‘to occupy,’ nor ‘to use,’ but an act of placing within a meaningful order. To inhabit means to find one’s place and make it one’s own. In Codrina Ioniță’s works, inhabiting does not appear as presence, but as trace. Abandoned houses, courtyards with leaning fences, grass overtaking yards—all become wasteland. Through these images, the artist shows that inhabiting does not disappear with people; it withdraws and transforms into sign. There are many ways of inhabiting: through presence, through daily gesture, through the lit fire and the open door; but also through absence, when the human being leaves, the house remains, and the walls become witnesses. Houses have a destiny. They are not mere objects of utility. They are born from necessity, grow with those who inhabit them, age, become empty, and pass on. Every wall shelters time. Codrina Ioniță’s works do not dramatize abandonment, but regard it with calm lucidity. The fluid, airy brushstroke allows the paper to breathe; white is given its own right, and color does not close, but suggests. Nothing is definitively outlined, because inhabiting itself is not. To inhabit means more than to stay. It means to leave something behind. And sometimes, what remains is enough for the world not to be empty.

The first two works by Christian Ioniță, made in childhood, are houses drawn instinctively, as shelter and as naming of the surrounding world, where safety naturally settles into form. The third work, made today, in adolescence, revisits the theme of the house with rigor and a consciousness of structure that reveals a reflective distance. Between these images, one can read not only a graphic evolution, but also the passage from innocent inhabiting to one filtered through thought. The house thus becomes a witness to growth and to the way vision matures.”(Maria Pașc)

— PROJECT NAME

And the Earth Is a Witness

Painting, Watercolor, Drawing, Photography, Video

— DATE

10.12.2025-1.02.2026

Curator Maria Pașc: “And the Earth Is Witness” thus becomes the name of a series of exhibitions dedicated to the recovery of memory—not as a nostalgic exercise, but as a moral undertaking. Memory is not an object of the past, but a responsibility of the present. It calls for a wakeful gaze, for searching, for a return to those who walked before us with heavy steps and courage.

In Codrina Ioniță’s exhibition, art becomes an instrument of vigil: it preserves traces, calls out names, and reopens paths over which the dust of forgetting would otherwise have settled. “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.” — Genesis 4:10. This verse is not only a testimony to the first injustice of the world, but also a hidden law: the earth preserves what man seeks to consign to oblivion. It does not receive blood and suffering as inert matter, but as a call to truth. Therefore, every act of recovering memory inevitably begins from this cry that rises from the depths.

It is within this work that the new exhibition “And the Earth Is Witness” takes its place. The path walked by Ion Ioanid—from Cavnic to Iacobeni—is not merely the route of an escape, but a stretch of land charged with unspoken testimonies. The earth upon which he stepped is a witness: to fear, to courage, to silent sacrifice. And the art of Codrina Laura Ioniță gives voice to this memory through closeness, listening, and drawing.

Walking along the same paths, the artist enters into dialogue with the places. Each line is a response to the call of the earth; each leaf, each shadow inscribed on paper is a sign that memory has not faded. In her works, the journey is not illustrated, but brought back into the light. Where history was forced into silence, Codrina restores its voice. Where people were covered by oblivion, art becomes an act of raising.

Codrina Laura Ioniță’s sensibility is rare: she does not regard places as landscapes, but as beings that still breathe. Before a path, a fallen leaf, or the contour of a hill, the artist does not seek the image, but its inner truth. This is why her works possess a delicacy that is not weakness, but vigilance: each line is attentive, each nuance carefully placed, as if touching something alive. In her drawings, one senses a form of inner listening, a readiness to receive what the place offers—whether light, silence, or wound. Codrina does not impose form; she allows it to emerge.

In this patience, in this humble attentiveness to detail, her strength is revealed: the ability to transform memory into presence and the earth into testimony. Thus, the exhibition continues the mission of the series “And the Earth Is Witness” to recover, through the language of painting, the memory of those who suffered, endured, and walked the paths of freedom at the cost of their own lives. Before these works, the viewer does not see only the traces of a journey, but encounters a moral question: What do we do with the memory that the earth still calls out to us?” (Maria Pașc)

— PROJECT NAME

The Porch

Painting, Watercolor, Drawing, Video

— DATE

5-25 september 2025

Curator Maria Pașc: “The exhibition Cerdac brings together works that give form to a seemingly modest yet deeply meaningful space. The cerdac—the traditional Romanian porch or veranda—stands at the front of the house, a place of welcome and watchfulness, of pause and passage. Here, light and shadow gather together, as do the time of labor and the time of rest, the shelter of the home and the openness toward the world.

The delicacy of Codrina Ioniță’s painting lies precisely in the way she captures these fleeting details. In her paintings one senses the almost imperceptible vibration of light falling at an angle, of a shadow shifting, of a flower breathing quietly. Everything is rendered with subtlety and with a tender attention to the fragility of the moment.

In the Gospels, the upper room or porch appears as a liminal space: a place of prayer, waiting, and receiving. In Codrina Ioniță’s paintings, this space is restored in its simplicity: a few wooden beams, flower pots, chairs left in repose. The work Porch with Petunias becomes a landmark of the exhibition, a composition in which the beams intersect like a discreet sign, while the flower pot glows like a living flame.

“Shadows and sunlight,” as the artist says, are transformed here into a metaphor of everyday presence, one that does not require spectacle in order to become revelatory. It is the place through which one passes, but also the place where one remains.

Nichita Stănescu might have said: ‘Between two windows, man is a window.’ Such are Codrina Ioniță’s porches: thresholds of light between interior and exterior, between shelter and openness. A painted poetry of the place where the house meets the world.” (Maria Pașc)