The exhibition "The sublime" by artist Martyna Benedyka is on display at "Dan Hatmanu" Gallery, in the Central Hall Passage in Iasi, Romania. The art project is ongoing between June 27 - July 18.

The artist and the curator reveal us the aspects related to the concept and the philosophy behind this new art project.

“Exploring the infinite, we experience a deeper, often unforgettable, sense of wonder. Here, the infinity is realized through cropped compositions, blackness, repetition, and the potential to evoke a mixture of emotions and feelings in the viewer. According to Burke, beauty brings relaxation and sublimity brings tension. The paradox of the sublime arises when we find peace in the things that overwhelm us. Both captivate us, despite the dangers. I decided to express the sublime and the infinite, referring to the sense and power of the image in the real world. Depriving it of details, a rather enigmatic selection of paintings evoke notions of the sublime as an aesthetic experience and a monumental vision that strikes the viewer with power and raises the boundless question of whether the sublime in art can coexist with beauty”, adds Martyna.

“The personal exhibition The sublime problematizes the coexistence of the concepts of sublime and beautiful, in the form of a visual experience whose latent tensions are generated by the paradoxical relationship between these two notions. Martyna draw a minimalist, ascetic (mono-/dia-) dialogue between stylized forms that undermines, as an act of rebellion, the limits of the exhibition space by placing the works either on the periphery of the gallery walls, or in one of its corners, or on plinths that assigns them an object - facility character. The artist's works betray fragments of faces and buildings that create a unity of stylistic and chromatic invoice”, sais Ioana Palamar, curator of the exhibition.

Martyna Benedyka is a visual and sound artist, photographer and coloratura soprano. Working in a wide range of media including painting, film and digital photography, collage, installation, video and sound art, she focuses on human existence, voice and identity, nature and the clandestine life of objects.

She studied Art and Design at the Gray’s School of Art in Scotland, UK and graduated with a First Class BA (Hons) degree in Fine Art Painting in 2014. She has exhibited in the UK, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Czechia, Romania, Estonia, Switzerland, South Korea, Canada and the USA.

Her work has been chosen by the Federation of British Artists for the Futures - UK’s largest annual survey of emerging contemporary figurative art at the Mall Galleries, London, among others. Recent projects include: Photo Romania Festival (winner 2022), Classix Festival (winner 2022), DongGang Photo Festival, South Korea (winner 2022-23), or De Structura Project, Estonia (winner 2022-23).

She is a member of Futures Photography, Amsterdam, NL (winner 2022) and she specializes in early and classical music.  More about this and other of her projects, here - https://martynabenedyka.com/