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Constantin Pacea, born on March 9th 1957 in Bucharest is a Romanian painter based in Paris, France. Born in a family of artists, he spent his early youth in his native Romania before deciding to leave the country in 1983. In 1985, after having spent some time living in Germany and Sweden, he chose to settle in France. Ever since 1992, he has lived and worked between Paris, Bucharest and Altea, Spain.

Biography
Constantin Pacea was born in 1957 in Bucharest. He is the second child of two painters, and has an older sister, Nana. His father, artist Ion Pacea was born in Northern Greece to a family of macedonian salesmen. His mother, Lucrezia, also an artist of macedonian but also Italian descent through her maternal lineage, was a fluent speaker of Italian, a language which Constantin grew up hearing and speaking.

Following a peaceful and happy early childhood surrounded by love and affection, Constantin (most often called "Dinu" by his entourage) completed his secondary education at the Nicolae Tonitza School in Bucharest between 1972 and 1976. Outside of school, Dinu became an increasingly keen painter, often using his father's workshop to paint still life images and explore his creativity. Inspired by the works of great masters such as El Greco, Vermeer, Degas, Velasquez, Giotto, Titian or Fra Angelico, but also highly intrigued by ancient Greek or Egyptian sculpture, Dinu starts to imitate and reproduce some of these creations. To this day, this habit has remained very present in his life. Upon completing his education and marrying his now long-time spouse, Florica Minea, Dinu followed his father's advice and started taking classes at Bucharest's Nicolae Grigorescu Institute of Fine Arts in 1977, seeking to develop his artistic technique. The anatomy classes at the Institute led to various creations, often entitled "Anatomy" or "Bones", and depicting both indoor and outdoor scenes. In 1981, in a collaboration with his wife, he completed his graduation piece, a 3x6m painting entitled "Man and the Universe", which was subsequently exposed at the Archeology Museum in Constanta.

In 1983, at the request of the Rafael Gallery in Frankfurt, which expressed a great interest in his work, Dinu moved to Germany with his wife. During his time there, he lived in Düsseldorf, Köln and Aachen, where he will set up a series of exhibitions. After a brief stay in Sweden, where the young couple was awarded a scholarship from the foundation of renowned art collector Peer Mattson, Constantin and Florica Pacea finally settled in Paris, France, in 1985. After the fall of the Romanian communist regime in 1989, Constantin began to go back to his native country more frequently, to work in his father's workshop in Bucharest. During that time, the young artist and his wife also traveled for the first time to Spain, going through Madrid, Barcelona, Ibiza and lastly Altea, a small village on the mediterranean coast, which will serve as one of his artistic inspirations for years to come.

In August 1999, the sudden death of Ion Pacea made a brutal impact on his son, who later wrote in his private journal: "August 13, 1999, Altea: With the exception of what is happening right now ,the emptiness caused by Papi's passing, my life has been nothing but a succession of fortunate events. I do not long for anything special; I just wish for life to go on unfolding the way it has so far".

In Altea, Constantin often captures in his works the natural landscapes, and in particular the "Isleta" (little island) noticeable from his house window, which has become a trademark of his, a symbol very present in his creations. From 2009 onwards, Constantin started undergoing a change in his style, with works such as "Gardens", "Sevilla Patios" or "Visum".

Notable quote:
"Painting, to me, is having a different perception of life and nature. It means using the world not as a resource, but as a platform for questions. The aesthetic research and the truth of nature are two very different things. What interests me most is the truth of nature, painting like it. Despite my professional appearance, I do not control or plan anything. At the start, in my paintings, I don't establish a certain plan or structure: I simply wait for events to unfold, and when I feel the timing is naturally right, I act upon it. I don't measure or control anything, I let things fall into place by themselves, and throughout this whole process, intuition is key. The creation of a painting starts with the progressive unfolding of a state of uncertainty which slowly leads to emotion. Here, the unpredicted plays a crucial role, and it would be a mistake to try to imitate that element. One cannot copy or reproduce an accident. Hazard is a natural thing." Constantin Pacea

Notable career achievements:
1981: Personal exhibition at the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant. Participation at the international drawing exhibiton "Lis81" at Lisbon's National Art Gallery, the "Arteder 82" exhibition of graphic art at the Museum of         Modern Art in Bilbao, Spain, and the Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts in Lausanne, Switzerland.

1983: Participation at the fourth Barcelona drawing competition in Spain.

1984: A number of exhibitions are set up in Sweden, at the Roda Traden and Thomas Wallmer galleries in Malmö, and the Angel gallery in Lund. That same year, Constantin and his wife Florica put together an exhibition at the Rafael Gallery in Frankfurt, and the Rautenberg Gallery of Aix-la-Chapelle.

1986: Important personal exhibition at the Gallery 44 of Kaarst-Düsseldorf, Germany, encompassing the 1980-1986 creative period. That same year, the gallery decides to showcase Constantin at the prestigious International Contemporary Art Fair of Chicago, United States.

1987: "The Book in all its Forms", Louis Aragon Library in Choisy-le-Roy. "Book of an Artist", Caroline Corre Gallery, Paris. Together with Florica, Constantin sets up an exhibition at the Jeanine Lorcet Gallery in Paris entitled "Contemplative Energy". Later that year, the artist exposed his creations at both the Grand-Palais in Paris and the Gijzenrooi Gallery of Geldrop, Netherlands.

1988: Participation at the "Signs, Schemes, Images" exhibition at the Acropolis Gallery in Nice, France.

1989: "Magician of My Land" exhibition, Caroline Corre Gallery, Paris. "Book Delirium", at the Cultural Centre or Boulogne-Billancourt.

1990: Exhibition at Madrid's Riol Gallery. Exhibition of "The Book in all its Forms" at the Caroline Corre Gallery in Paris and the Huguette Bultel Gallery in Strasbourg.

1991: Participation at the Salon des Arts Graphiques of the Grand-Palais, Paris.

1992: Exhibition alongside sculptor Jan van Depol at the Gijzenrooi Gallery of Geldrop, Netherlands.

1993: Group exhibition at Madrid's Riol Gallery.

1994: The Ionel Petrov Gallery showcases Constantin Pacea in a "one man show" at the International Art Fair of Gand, Belgium.

1998: Constantin Pacea is invited to put together a personal exhibition at the Eberhard Schlotter Foundation in Altea, Spain.

2006: The Schlotter Foundation invites Constantin for a second exhibition.

2008: The Nordenhake Gallery in Stockholm, Sweden, includes him in the group exhibition entitled "Agents".

2012: In collaboration with two other artists, Constantin sets up an exhibition entitled "Interior Gardens" at the Maket Gallery in Paris.Page ICR.

2014: "Constantin Pacea: A Retrospective", an exhibition on his entire career, opens at the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant in Bucharest.Page Artindex.

Page Cotidianul.