Short Biography
Anca Francesca Stefanescu is a British artist whose practice moves between painting, drawing, writing, installation and moving image. Her work often begins with something small – a memory, a sentence, a colour, a photograph, a dream – and follows it until it becomes difficult to say where an image ends and a thought begins.
Trained as a painter and conceptual artist in Bucharest, Stefanescu turned away from painting in the late 1990s, moving through performance, film, photography, installation, writing and digital image-making. Painting returned gradually, carrying traces of these other forms with it: the fragment, the document, the private note, the found image.
Her recent work stays close to lived experience without treating it as settled material. Memory changes as it is revisited. A photograph becomes a painting; a sentence becomes an image; something remembered begins to behave like something invented. The work follows these shifts rather than resolving them.
There is often a question underneath it: what happens when something we thought we knew becomes strange again? A room, a body, a relationship, a colour, a memory. Stefanescu's paintings and writings leave these things open, allowing the personal to remain personal while making space for recognition.
Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at Manifesta 3, the Romanian Cultural Institute in London, and exhibitions and biennials in London, Venice, Florence, Rome and Larnaca. Her work has also appeared in publications including Aesthetica, Le Monde diplomatique and COLECTA.
Education
1994–1999, National University of Arts (UNArte), Bucharest, Romania
1987–1993, Art High School, N. Tonitza, Bucharest, Romania.
2010–2011, Soho Editors Talent & Training, London (visual effects, finishing, and colour grading software)
Solo Exhibitions
2021, The Innocent Perception, Eclectic Gallery, London, United Kingdom
2020, The Need of Belonging, Romanian Cultural Institute, London, United Kingdom
2019, Breathing Space, Open Studio Exhibition, London
2016, Bitter or Sweeter, Installation, Molecule-F, Bucharest, Romania
2015, LOVE ART - WEAR ART, Installation, Molecule-F, Bucharest, Romania
2014, ZOO, Entrance, Bucharest, Romania
Biennials
2018, Biennial Larnaca, Cyprus, Multiple Locations
2017, RomArt Biennial, The International Biennial of Art and Culture in Rome, Italy
2017, Florence Biennale, Florence, Italy
1998, IntermediArt – Contemporary Art Biennial, Oradea, Romania
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024, Nature, ArTbridge & ArtMoorHouse, Moore House Building, London, United Kingdom
2023, The Annual Salon of UK-based Romanian Artists, Romanian Cultural Institute, London, United Kingdom
2022, We Are What We See, Glimpses, Shoreditch, London
2023, Floral Patterns, Eclectic Gallery, 16 Newman St., London, United Kingdom
2022, Colours of Autumn, Eclectic Gallery, 16 Newman St., London, United Kingdom
2021, Abstraction and Perception, Eclectic Gallery, 16 Newman St., London, United Kingdom
2020, Resilience, Pop-Up Exhibition, Mayfair, London, United Kingdom
2020, Wiltshire Creative Summer Open Exhibition, Salisbury Arts Centre, Salisbury, United Kingdom
2020, Solo Exhibition, The Need of Belonging, Romanian Cultural Institute, London, United Kingdom
2019, The Other Art Fair London, Saatchi Art, London, United Kingdom
2019, The Bricklane Gallery, Contemporary Painting Exhibition, London, United Kingdom
2018, Biennale Larnaca, Cyprus
2018, Sunny Art Prize Exhibition, London, United Kingdom
2018, NAG Art Gallery, Contemporary Exhibition, San Lorenzo Church, Florence, Italy
2018, World Art Dubai, Contemporary Art Fair, Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
2018, Jorge Jurado Gallery, Art Show, Bogota, Columbia
2018, ART Innsbruck, International Art Fair, Innsbruck, Austria
2017, THE ROOM Gallery, Contemporary Art Space, Venice, Italy
2017, Spectrum/Red Dot Miami, Contemporary Art Show, Miami, FL, USA
2017, RomArt Biennial, The International Biennial of Art and Culture in Rome, Italy
2017, Florence Biennale, Florence, Italy
2017, Alchemic Body | Fire. Air. Water. Earth, Jorge Jurado Gallery, Art Festival, Bogota, Columbia
2017, Anima Mundi Visions, Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi Gallery, It's Liquid International Art Festival, Venice, Italy
2017, Femininity Art Online Exhibition, International Gallery of the Arts, Toronto, ON, Canada
2016, Bitter or Sweeter, Installation @ Molecule-F Concept Store, Bucharest, Romania
2015, LOVE ART, WEAR ART, Installation @ Molecule-F Concept Store Bucharest, Romania
2014, Art & Fashion, Entrance Concept Store, Bucharest, Romania
2014, Romanian Design Week, "Timeless Collection," Anca Stefanescu X Alina Gavrila, Bucharest, Romania
2013, Book Cover Tee, Chapter 3, Bucharest, Romania
2010, Opening of the new Gandy Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
2004, 20 Minutes of Glory, Video Installation, MNAC Centre, Bucharest, Romania
2001, Five Stories, New Gallery, Bucharest, Romania
2000, Other P’Art, Mission Art Gallery, French Institute, Polish Institute, M.A.M.Ü. Galley, Budapest, Hungary
2000, Studio 498, Eforie Gallery, Bucharest, Romania
2000, Other P’Art International, Art Camp, Tihany, Hungary
2000, Multimedia Art Festival ‘Dotyk’, Poznań, Poland
1999, Urban Feelings – Urban Facts, Graz-Maribor, Austria-Slovenia
1999, Selected at the Contemporary Art Biennial Manifesta 3 Ljubljana, Slovenia 1998
1999, IntermediArt – Contemporary Art Biennial, Oradea, Romania
Selected Publications
COLECTA The Art Magazine, April/June 2021
Le Monde Diplomatique, September 2020, pag. Cover, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17
Aesthetica, April/May 2018, issue 81, pag. 158
NAG Gallery - Arte Contemporanea 2018, p. 56–63
Anima Mundi - ITS Liquid International Art Show Venice 2017
Federation of Canadian Artists, Annual International Representation 2017
Aesthetica Feb/Mar 2018 issue 81, pag. 158
Aesthetica Dec/Jan 2018 issue 80, pag. 157
Exhibition Catalogue, The Room Gallery, Venice, 2017
Glamour UK, vol. 6, June 2017, p. 206
Art & Beyond Chicago, USA, vol. 45, May-June 2017, p. 26
Glamour UK, vol. 6, June 2017, p. 206
Glamour UK, vol. 5, May 2017, p. 198
Glamour UK, vol. 4, April 2017, p. 202
Unica Romania, vol. 7, July 2016, p. 51
Beaumonde Romania, vol. 12, December 2015, p. 71
Villa Design, Romania, vol. 5, June-November 2011, p. 56–63, p. 162 (back cover)
Opening, published by Gandy Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia, 2010
Exhibition Catalogue, published by Other P’Art, M.A.M.Ü. Galley, Budapest, Hungary, 2000
Observatorul Cultural, Art Magazine, Romania, 1999
Most recent interviews:
Oneness: Anca F. Stefanescu, November 29, 2020, by Burnt Orange City [read the article]
The emotional gradations of my colours, curator Marta Grabowska, Red Zenith Collective, 2020 [read the article]
Anca Stefanescu, Curaty's Artist of the Week, VI, June 18, 2020 [read the article]
Q&A with Artist Anca Stefanescu, September 30, 2019, Ken Bromley Art Supplies [read the article]
Collaborations
2015–2018 Co-Founder & Designer, COML Ltd., London, UK
2013–2015, Co-Founder and Creative Director, Diorama Concept, London, UK
2004–2015, DI Colourist, Multimedia Est, Bucharest, Romanian Production and Post Production House
1997–2002, VFX artist, Abis Studio, Bucharest, Romania
Anca Stefanescu - A Steam of Life, 2024 Catalogue
