Stefan Radu Cretu: Unknown Creatures

418 Gallery was founded in Bucharest in 2008. Since 2017 the gallery has its headquarters in Cetate on the shores of the Danube and became the first rural gallery in Romania. This unusual environment, which is a former agricultural family estate from the second half of the 19th century, provides an ideal match to our young cutting-edge artists working on a big scale. The artists can develop their skills, construct unrestricted installations and create land art.

Stefan Radu Cretu’s magic kinetic works are inspired by the four elements and focus often on the unknown and the unexplored deep sea marine life. The exhibition Unknown Creatures opening on June 1, 2019 will encompass his already existing outdoor works in the Cetate Arts Danube Sculpture Park, as well as recent pieces which will be shown in the former grainery.

Curated by Victoria Dejaco

“To engage with the works of Stefan Radu Cretu means diving into a very personal space, since he creates utopian worlds filled with peculiar creatures. In Stefan’s world, a faucet might look like a sad little chicklet. When he looks at shapes he sees characters, little creatures with a life of their own. Once while hanging art works, I saw him arrange a square Bosch Cross Line Laser and its flexible mount to look like a little dog climbing up the ladder tilting its head to look at a painting. He sees objects animated and hence found ways to imbue the world around him with a soul and intent. The characters Stefan creates often fly, or dig, or swim. It might be arguable that movement is more touching than something still, because we readily identify with a moving object or interpret it as something alive of sorts and hence worth our attention. The works are engaging the viewer’s feelings with an immediacy that is hard to achieve in art and even rarely to be found in the related field of kinetic art.” From “Mapping the works of Stefan Radu Cretu. An Essay” by Victoria Dejaco

Stefan Radu Cretu - Unknown Creatures 2019
Book published by Fundatia Joana Grevers
​With text by Victoria Dejaco and an interview with Joana Grevers & Stefan Radu Cretu
168 pages
Limited edition of 100 pcs
15 copies signed by the artist

Available through the gallery. To reserve your copy contact us at: office [​at​] 418gallery.com