User:RalucaUNARTE/Cătălin Bălescu

Cătălin Bălescu (born January 6, 1962, at Brad, Hunedoara County, Romania) is a Romanian visual artist,doctor in Visual Arts (artis doctor) and university professor at the Department of Painting of The National University of Arts in Bucharest, his Alma Mater.

Prof. Cătălin Bălescu is the Rector of The National University of Arts in Bucharest (elected in 2012). He is a member of the permanent staff of the Doctoral Studies section within The National University of Arts in Bucharest, and has coordinated doctoral dissertations ever since 2010.

Cătălin Bălescu has been a member of The Visual Artists’ Union of Romania( U.A.P) ever since 1990.

Education
In 1986 Cătălin Bălescu graduated from the “Nicolae Grigorescu” Plastic Arts Institute, where he had studied between 1981 and 1986. Previous to that, he had studied at the High School of Arts in Deva, Hunedoara, Romania.

Scientific and Didactic Activity
Cătălin Bălescu has been teaching at the Department of Painting of The National University of Arts in Bucharest ever since 1990. He started his academic career as an assistant professor, between 1990 and 1997, at the class of Professors Sorin Ilfoveanu, Florin Mitroi, Vasile Grigore. In 1998 he became a university lecturer at the Department of Painting of The National University of Arts in Bucharest. In 2003 Cătălin Bălescu became a doctor in visual arts (artis doctor), by successfully defending his thesisentitled Grammar Elements of Visual Art Imagery: ImageSyntax, published as such at the Printech Publishing House, 2004, ISBN 9737180909.

Between 2005 and 2009 he was an associate professor at the Department of Painting of The National University of Arts in Bucharest. In 2009 he earned his title of university professor.

During 1995-1996 Cătălin Bălescu coordinated the Studio 35 (Atelier 35) section of The Visual Artists’ Union of Romania( U.A.P).

Ever since 1996 Cătălin Bălescu has been involved in organizing activities with students groups of the Department of Painting. From 1990 to 2000 he worked as a Scientific Secretary of the Department of Painting of The National University of Arts. Between 2000 and 2004 he was appointed Scientific Secretary of the Faculty of Fine Arts of The National University of Arts in Bucharest. In 2004 Cătălin Bălescu was appointed Scientific Secretary of the Senate of The National University of Arts in Bucharest, Romania.

As far as scientific activity is concerned, starting with 2004 Cătălin Bălescu has been the ARTLAB Director (i.e. of the Laboratory for Artistic Image Analysis and Creation), acknowledged by CA 37/2004 of The National Council of Scientific Research (the NCSR, i.e. the CNCS).

Among the research projects in which he has taken active part there is the Type A NCSR – 1/2000, Research Concerning Advanced Techniques of Artistic Imagery Analysis, carried out in partnership with the Department of Mathematics of the Faculty of Cybernetics of [Bucharest University of Economic Studies] (AES) (see The AES Informatics Review 17/2001).

From 2002 to 2004 Cătălin Bălescu participated in the PED Project/ CERES Program/National Plan for Development, entitled An Analysis Method of Fundamental Elements of ArtisticImagery, carried out in partnership with The National Institute for Research and Development in Optoelectronics NIOE 2000. Between 2006 and 2008 Cătălin Bălescu was involved in a program of providing graduation equipment for laboratories, administered by The National Ministry of Education. In 2008 he got involved in theCEX 05D8-02-2 project entitled eMart-Cyber Museumof Arts Universities in Romania.

Cătălin Bălescu is a member of the JAQM Advisory Board (Journal of Applied Quantitative Methods).

Personal Exhibitions

 * 2006 – at The Apollo Gallery in Bucharest, Romania
 * 2003 – at TheSimeza Gallery in Bucharest
 * 2000 – at TheSimeza Gallery in Bucharest
 * 1997 – at The Apollo Gallery in Bucharest
 * 1994 – at The Simeza Gallery in Bucharest

Group Exhibitions (a selection)

 * 2013 – The Painting Salon, at The Visual Arts Center in Bucharest, Romania
 * 2013, May – Ten + (Zece +) at The Visual Arts Center in Bucharest
 * 2013, April – VENATURE XXV, at The Visual Arts Center in Bucharest
 * 2012 – UNARTE 012: The Department of Painting Exhibition, at The Museum of Arts in Cluj- Napoca, Cluj County, Romania
 * 2012 – Arts in Bucharest, at The Visual Arts Center in Bucharest
 * 2012 – Culture of Cosmos, at The Parliament Hall in Bucharest
 * 2012, January – Eleven + (Unsprezece +) at The Visual Arts Center in Bucharest
 * 2011 – Group Exhibition at The Plastic Artists Union Gallery in Iaşi, Iaşi County, Romania
 * 2011 – Thirteen (Treisprezece) at The Visual Arts Center in Bucharest
 * 2011 – …After Cremaster, at The Visual Arts Center in Bucharest
 * 2010 – Studio Instances II, at The Visual Arts Center in Bucharest
 * 2009 – TEN (ZECE), at The Visual Arts Center in Bucharest
 * 2009 – Studio Instances I, at The Visual Arts Center in Bucharest
 * 2008 – The Andalusian Dog, at The Artis Gallery in Bucharest
 * 2008 – Drawing Group Exhibition at The Simeza Gallery in Bucharest
 * 2003 – The Municipal Salon at The Artis Gallery in Bucharest
 * 2001 – Group Exhibition at The Căminul Artei Gallery, at the 1st Floor in Bucharest
 * 2001 – The National Arts Salon at The Exhibition Pavilion in Bucharest
 * 1999 – Time in Space Arts, at The Institute of Architecture in Bucharest
 * 1995 – Group Exhibition at The Apollo Gallery in Bucharest
 * 1995, March – Object vs. Objectivity, at the Studio 35 (Atelier 35) in Bucharest
 * 1995, February – New Avant-Garde vs. New Traditionalism, at the Studio 35 in Bucharest
 * 1995, January – Power vs. Powerlessness, at the Studio 35 in Bucharest
 * 1994, 1992, 1990, 1988, 1987 – Youth Exhibition, at The National Theater in Bucharest (TNB)
 * 1988 – The Annual Graphics Exhibition, at The Dalles Hall in Bucharest
 * 1996, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1985 – The Municipal Exhibition at The National Theater in Bucharest (TNB)
 * 1983 – Sketches, Students’ Exhibition, in Bucharest

International Exhibitions

 * 2012 – The International Triennial of Drawing and Engraving –3rdEdition, Bangkok, Thailand
 * 2001 – The International Biennial of Drawing and Engraving, Taipei, Taiwan
 * 2000 – Yungersted&Brostrom Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
 * 1997 – The International Arts Biennial, Sharjah, Arabian Emirates Union
 * 1995 – Rhein Main Maritime Hotel, Darmstadt, Germany
 * 1995 – The Romanian Cultural Centers in Vienna (Austria), Budapest (Hungary), Venice (Italy)
 * 1995 – The International Painting Festival, CagnessurMer, France
 * 1990 – An Itinerant Exhibition; ISELP, Bruxelles; Botanique Gallery, Bruxelles, Belgium; The Romanian Library in Paris, France
 * 1989 – The International Miniature Festival, 4th Edition, Galleria Del Bello, Toronto, Canada

Prizes, Awards, Scholarships, Grants

 * 1997 – Scholarship from The Italian Cultural Institute in Bucharest; traveling to study in Rome, Florence, Venice – Italy
 * 1993 – Tempus Scholarship for Bath College of Higher Education, UK
 * 1988 – Costin Petrescu Scholarship from the Plastic Artists Union, Romania

Articles, Books, Books Illustration
Voting Algorithm for Neuro-Fuzzy Ensembles,” Procs. of The First International Conference on Natural Computation ICNC 2005 (Lipo Wang, Ke Chen, Yew S. Ong, Eds.) Changsha,China, 2005, Springer Verlag Lecture Notes in Computer Science LNCS3612, pp. 1300 –1303, ISSN 3-540-28320-X
 * Zhang S., Neagu D. and Bălescu C., ”Refinement of Clustering Solutions Using a Multi-Label
 * Zhang S. and Bălescu C., “A Multi-Label Voting Algorithm for Neuro-Fuzzy Classifiers Ensembles Applied for Visual Arts Data Mining,” Procs. of The 5th International Conference on Intelligent Systems Design and Applications ISDA 2005, (HalinaKwasnicka, Marcin Paprycki, Eds.), Wroclaw, Poland, 2005, IEEE Computer Society Press, pp. 245-250, ISSN 	0-7695-2286-6
 * Zhang S., Neagu D., Bălescu C., “Knowledge Representation for Visual Art Data Mining,” The 6th 	Informatics Workshop for Research Students, Univ. of Bradford, 23 March 2005,pp. 198-202, ISBN 1-85143-220-5
 * Zhang S., Neagu D., Bălescu C., “Visual Art Data Mining: Knowledge Representation and a Case Study,” PREP 2005: The EPSRC Postgraduate Research Conference in Electronics, Photonics, Communications and Networks, and Computing Science at the University of Lancaster, March 30th– April 1st 2005, pp. 295-296
 * Bălescu, Cătălin, Graphic Design to the volume of Sorin Ilfoveanu, Studio Notes 1985 – 2009, Vols. I – VI, 2009
 * Bălescu, Cătălin, Graphic Design to the volume of Sorin Ilfoveanu, Studio 1995 – 2010, UNARTE Publishing House, 2010, ISBN 978-606-8296-00-5
 * Bălescu, Cătălin, Graphic Design to the volume The Kalinderu Heritage: Ruins of a Museum, UNARTE Publishing House, ISBN 978-973-1922-52-2
 * Bălescu, Cătălin, General Editor & Project Coordinator, The National University of Arts Museum, UNARTE Publishing House, 2008, ISBN 978-973-1922-06-5

Acknowledgements and Reviews
[…]	The way in which Cătălin Bălescu’s creative mind has grown to express itself coincides with the spirit of painting itself. This opens up to the painter’s mind as some privileged empire, treading upon whose territory the artist will reach to its very core. It is a way necessarily complex, difficult and even dangerous, yet straightforward. This means the artist can ceaselessly contemplate his aim. Endowed with insight and creative intelligence, Bălescu comes ever closer to what I should call the very essence of any creative act. This demands our particular interpretation of the fact. To Cătălin Bălescu, approaching the realm of painting has practically nothing to do with any passing whim, lasting for one season or perhaps one day in a lifetime; it is a lifelong process, with its natural growing norms, its crossroads and labyrinthine convolutions.

The older images I can recall from Cătălin Bălescu’s works go as far back as the’90s. Refreshing them from beneath heavy layers of memory, the cold monochrome canvases, rendering the theme of interiors, seem to me today to have crystallized a certain creative experience of a neo-expressionist propensity. This may be also due to my own perception back then, when I tended to ascribe such paintings and drawings to Anselm Kiefer’s stylistic influence. Especially to his works digressing upon the theme of Parsifal.

Talking to the artist, I came to find out that his canvases only rendered his studio’s interior – the same studio where Costin Petrescu once used to toil constantly in order to bring his pedantic art to his own idea of consummation. By some game of hazard, Cătălin Bălescu may have got the chance to remake an experience originally meant for Victor Brauner. Moving to the studio that had formerly belonged to Rousseau Le Douanier, Brauner achieved – as encouraged by André Breton – a painting in which those beings imagined by himself could meet those invented by Rousseau. For the latter would still linger, like ghosts, in corners of the Parisian studio in Perrel Street. Likewise, Cătălin Bălescu has managed to evoke, and also rekindle, the old energies of the present day creator, stuck in the studio corners but also in the traces of European civilization, discernible in any one of his images. Some of Bălescu’s paintings succeed in capturing energy-signs by means of which painting masterpieces may still address us from out yonder in time.

Look at his paintings – actual draughts of art history, or “portable museums,” à la Duchamp – taking squared shapes reminiscent of Mondrian, filled up not with pure color, as on the Dutch painter’s canvas, but with reality representations, reflecting some “iconographic nuclei.” Watching them, we may feel art history throbbing within like some living organism. Watching their painted surfaces, as if squared on a map, one may recognize there – as if some old acquaintances or friends – either Luther himself, as Cranach once painted him, or Raphael in a self-portrait, or some character with no precise identity, but known to have been revealed by Rembrandt’s brush. The same throbbing tension, of an ineffable spiritual nature, meets us in the more recent paintings, reviving a baroque world, painted by Father Andrea Pozzo, on the walls of the church dedicated to Ignatius de Loyola. A world overwhelmed by the grisaille monochrome of dark shades, descending from the baroque, along with William Turner’s shades of pale, to postmodern times. These are our times, which we share with the artist, in a spiritual order. This is why Cătălin Bălescu’s characters – though still stuck to the walls of Sant’ Ignazio as if by magic – still evince the power and the audacity to search for a new identity while mingling with characters descending from Peter Greenaway’s movies, perhaps. Neither does Greenaway’s world evolve autonomously: it seems to be searching for its origins, too, with avidity. Complex and polymorphous, grotesque and precisely because of it, perhaps, aspiring to some kind of indefinite sacredness, this fictive world encounters on its way Federico Fellini’s characters. If I may, I would like to hint at that fantastic parade of ecclesiastic fashion, imagined by Fellini to round up his film ”Roma.”

As the astute surgeon he is, Cătălin Bălescu discloses to us the mysteries of this spiritual tissue, centuries old and yet contemporary, which proves to be still alive. Its mellowvitality is contagious, catching us all in its flow, making us partake in it. Just like moss and lichen become one with the grey marble that once yielded the image of a putto or that of a faun.

Actually moss and lichen alike know that, identifying with time itself, they have become faun and putto alike. These are the coordinates of a strange and touching metamorphosis, shared by painter and onlookers alike. Cristian-Robert Velescu

[...] Cătălin Bălescu is one of the Romanian visual artists of a sound worldwide reputation. He has participated in The International Painting Festival at CagnessurMer, in France, and likewise in The International Drawing and Engraving Biennial in Taipei, Taiwan, among many other international famous festivals and exhibitions. He has always been a remarkable presence in numerous group exhibitions in our country, held recently more often at the Visual Arts Center Gallery. He has been successful with numerous personal exhibitions, opened at the Apollo and Simeza Galleries in Bucharest, Romania. From the 2013 BIEFF International Festival Catalog