Earth Whispers, 2025

Alina Schiau  

Alina Schiau is a contemporary Romanian painter based in Paris whose work falls within the realms of abstract painting , contemporary art , oil painting , and reflections on multiple identities , memory, and exile. Born in Romania in the early 1980s, she was welcomed to Switzerland at the age of two or three as a political refugee after her family fled the regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu. This formative experience profoundly informs her work and constitutes one of the major axes of her artistic research.

Trained at the Bellecour School of Applied Arts in Geneva, Alina Schiau initially pursued a diverse career as a graphic designer, actress, and presenter before dedicating herself fully to the visual arts. After her studies, she settled in Paris and, since 2019, has focused her practice firmly on contemporary abstract painting , asserting a creative freedom nourished as much by personal history as by a universal reflection on transmission and belonging.

His artistic approach is based on a process of successive layers of oil paint , where each pictorial layer engages in a dialogue with the previous one. This layering technique becomes a metaphor for the construction of identity: nothing disappears entirely; memories, legacies, absences, and emotions remain present beneath the visible surface. The artist summarizes this vision with a now emblematic phrase: "I paint as I exist: in layers."

Influenced by questions related to duality, memory, and the invisible realities that structure human experience, Alina Schiau develops a body of work situated between lyrical abstraction , sensory exploration, and philosophical reflection. Her artistic universe explores the links between light, time, matter, and identity, proposing a conception of being based on stratified rather than juxtaposed identities. His work thus engages with contemporary issues of exile, cultural transmission, and the plurality of belonging.

Words also play a vital role in his creative process. Engraved directly into the still-fresh paint, they appear and then gradually disappear, like buried memories that continue to silently influence our perception of the world. This relationship between text and painting reinforces the immersive and introspective dimension of his work.

Since 2019, her work has been featured in numerous group and solo exhibitions in France. Recent solo exhibitions include Prisms at Galerie Partage in Lyon in 2024 and Spectra at the same gallery in 2025. She has also participated in group exhibitions such as La Femme at Galerie Artitude in Paris, Frontière organized by Les Nouveaux Collectionneurs, and Identités at Galerie Wawi in Paris. Her participation in the Affordable Art Fair in Brussels also marks a significant step in the international development of her career.

Represented by ACID Gallery in Lille, Galerie Partage in Lyon, and the international platform Rise Art, Alina Schiau pursues a unique artistic exploration within the contemporary European art scene. Through the richness of her pictorial material, the depth of her reflection on identity, and her sensitive use of color and transparency, she establishes a body of work where memory , abstraction , oil on canvas , cultural heritage , light , and the layers of existence become the foundations of a profoundly personal artistic expression.