Through failure and procedure

Luca Calaras is a Romanian artist born in Bucharest in 1998. After his admission to the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, he moved to Germany and began his studies with Professor Thomas Scheibitz in 2018. Group exhibitions he has participated in include Der Bogen im Auge at KIT in Düsseldorf in 2022 as well as Grassroots and REALMS at JVDW in 2022 and 2023. Knieinfarkt is his debut solo exhibition at JVDW gallery and shows his unique approach to abstract painting through the process of failure and proceeding.

With each previously established definition, a piece of freedom is lost, says Luca Calaras and thus explains his way of finding images, in which he consciously tries to avoid the prior definition of a concept. 

He starts with an idea – a possible concept in his head, but fortunately, as he says himself, he always fails to implement it. Sooner or later he would come to the realization that his basic idea does not work, which marks the point where the real artistic process can begin for him.

The moment he recognizes and accepts the failure of the initial idea, he sets out in search of the subconscious and finds the unexpected and unique forms that dominate his compositions.

Detached from a basic concept, Luca Calaras' paintings nevertheless share a common denominator – a larger thematic field that can be found in all his works. It is his personal interests that take shape and form in his works: a fascination with the absurd, that plays a key role in Luca Calaras’ painting. The liberation of meaning that results from his way of working plays into this approach. Yet, Luca Calaras working method can be described as conceptional, in that the creation of the picture follows a certain sequence. From the initial idea doomed to failure to the process that begins after the failure with the search of the subconscious.

Influenced by Romanian artists of Surrealism and Dadaism, as well as writers who focus on the meaningful in the absence of a narrative, the duality of meaning and absurdity is found in Luca Calaras’ work. Between figurativeness and abstraction, including a certain humor, his paintings still retain a degree of seriousness, which, like the other aspects of his work, is reflected in the title of the exhibition. Funny, wrong and absurd sounding, the invented word "Knieinfarkt" actually refers to something serious and associated with pain, while it sounds like the made-up word of a child trying to describe something for which it lacks words.

By denying them a deeper meaning and leaving them hollow, Luca Calaras’ paintings do not aim to provide answers, but instead to pose questions and open up new worlds that do not ask to be understood, but rather allow the viewer to participate and complete them.

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Through failure and procedure

Luca Calaras is a Romanian artist born in Bucharest in 1998. After his admission to the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, he moved to Germany and began his studies with Professor Thomas Scheibitz in 2018. Group exhibitions he has participated in include Der Bogen im Auge at KIT in Düsseldorf in 2022 as well as Grassroots and REALMS at JVDW in 2022 and 2023. Knieinfarkt is his debut solo exhibition at JVDW gallery and shows his unique approach to abstract painting through the process of failure and proceeding.

With each previously established definition, a piece of freedom is lost, says Luca Calaras and thus explains his way of finding images, in which he consciously tries to avoid the prior definition of a concept. 

He starts with an idea – a possible concept in his head, but fortunately, as he says himself, he always fails to implement it. Sooner or later he would come to the realization that his basic idea does not work, which marks the point where the real artistic process can begin for him.

The moment he recognizes and accepts the failure of the initial idea, he sets out in search of the subconscious and finds the unexpected and unique forms that dominate his compositions.

Detached from a basic concept, Luca Calaras' paintings nevertheless share a common denominator – a larger thematic field that can be found in all his works. It is his personal interests that take shape and form in his works: a fascination with the absurd, that plays a key role in Luca Calaras’ painting. The liberation of meaning that results from his way of working plays into this approach. Yet, Luca Calaras working method can be described as conceptional, in that the creation of the picture follows a certain sequence. From the initial idea doomed to failure to the process that begins after the failure with the search of the subconscious.

Influenced by Romanian artists of Surrealism and Dadaism, as well as writers who focus on the meaningful in the absence of a narrative, the duality of meaning and absurdity is found in Luca Calaras’ work. Between figurativeness and abstraction, including a certain humor, his paintings still retain a degree of seriousness, which, like the other aspects of his work, is reflected in the title of the exhibition. Funny, wrong and absurd sounding, the invented word "Knieinfarkt" actually refers to something serious and associated with pain, while it sounds like the made-up word of a child trying to describe something for which it lacks words.

By denying them a deeper meaning and leaving them hollow, Luca Calaras’ paintings do not aim to provide answers, but instead to pose questions and open up new worlds that do not ask to be understood, but rather allow the viewer to participate and complete them.

Request Worklist

Back to exhibitions