Marina Hirlea

And, I must admit that Marina Hirlea's artworks simply stopped me dead in my tracks as I was wandering through the aisles of a contemporary art fair, an interlude that allowed me to shut out the commotion that was around me until I eventually "snapped" out of it. It was love at first sight. I felt the urge to meet Marina and suggest to her that she should join our selection. It was about the subject, her landscapes, as you may have guessed, but above all, skylines...the horizontality. But I will come back that later...

Marina's journey? Marina is one of those many artists who have always painted and drawn for as long as they can remember but were told to pursue studies and get a "real" job. Born in Bucharest, Romania, she began studying architecture there (as it well suited her family's wishes), but had to abandon her studies because of the political unrest at the time. Her family sought political asylum, first in Sweden, then Switzerland, and finally in France, when she was 25 years old. During those years and throughout her various relocations, she resumed her studies in architecture in Lausanne, then joined the Faculty of Fine Arts and took drawing classes at the “Superior Decorative Arts School" in Strasbourg.

Upon obtaining her degree, she continued to paint and draw, but only when she had her free time allowed it. As a wife and mother, life and its material necessities led her to take on a job in accounting, which she kept for 12 years... then in 2018, she decided to go back to painting with the firm intention of “finding" herself, and of making a living from it.

That's why I am even more delighted to introduce her and represent her, even though she is still at the beginning of her career, but with a highly developed artistic maturity. There is no doubt that Art Traffik will not be the sole gallery to exhibit her work for much longer, and we wish her all the success in that regard! But, let's get back to her artworks, her universe... her talent.

Marina is an artist who constantly explores and is guided by her desires, ideas, inspirations, as well as the emotions she feels when creating her artworks. One artwork calls upon the next. Her intention : to explore the many interpretations of the emotions kindled by nature and its contemplation. However, she quickly found herself focusing on nature and landscapes in all their aspects, honing in on the horizon line, the horizontality which has become her dearest, if not obsessive, subject of choice. "I can't explain why, but the horizontality inspires and questions me, as if it beckons me." Is this the fruit of her architectural knowledge, or the reason she was drawn to architecture in the first place? Nonetheless, horizontality has become a part of her artistic identity. Horizontality she accentuates by using only part of the "canvas" in these perfectly proportioned rectangles, which open a window onto the landscapes she offers for contemplation. In so doing, she makes them precious.

As precious as are Marina Hirlea's technique and her devotion to creating. Whether in her collages, her paintings, or when she combines the two, Marina's gesture is as precise as her quest for perfection is intense. Whichever the technique used, which characterizes her series, Marina exploits it for the benefit of the emotion she seeks to reflect, share and convey.

Marina Hirléa works in "series". Each one is the expression of an idea, a desire, a different way of "portraying" landscapes and horizons. An idea, a desire, that she first perfects before exploring its many possibilities and variations. She shapes her works using paint or fabrics of haute-couture designers she is so fond of (another recollection of her penchant for architecture and interior design). "While the technical process is predefined for each series, the moment of creating each artwork is spontaneous and just as equally natural. The moment of creation is based on emotion, not reflection."
This approach yields outcomes that embody an uncommon and valuable beauty, exhibiting fragility and tenderness that epitomize both the artist and her creations: modesty, sensibility, and an understated elegance, along with a contemporary touch. For while her works are universal and timeless in their subject matter, their architectural elements, composition and color palette also make them contemporary.