Gaep is pleased to announce the representation of Vlad Nancă. 

With a sustained interest in architecture and the transformation of the built environment, Nancă revisits 20th-century modernism to imagine possible futures in response to contemporary conditions. His sculptures, installations, and wall-based mixed-media works frequently draw on archival material and references from art and architectural history, engaging with themes such as modernist architecture and modernity, the space race, (failed) utopias, and speculative narratives about future modes of living.

Vlad Nancă first came to prominence for his use of political and cultural symbols to critically examine nostalgia and the social aftereffects of the Romanian Revolution, as well as the rise of capitalism in the early 2000s. Works such as Original Adidas (2003), I don’t know what Union I want to belong to anymore (2003), and Proposal for the National Redemption Cathedral (2004) are emblematic for this period in his practice. 

In recent years, Nancă has increasingly turned his attention to space in its multiple manifestations – from public space and architecture to outer space. Employing an approach that is both retrospective and speculative, he has reflected on the cultural heritage one might relocate to another habitable planet (the exhibition Souvenirs from Earth, 2015) and on the intersections between the visionary ideals of architecture collectives such as Superstudio and the lived realities of 1980s socialist Romania (Vis-à-vis, 2019). He has also investigated the space race, folkloric and vernacular manifestations of modernity, and the link between nature and technology (In the Natural Landscape the Human Is an Intruder, 2018), as well as questions of ownership over the future and the imaginaries that shape it (A Map of the World as Seen by Him, 2022). Across these projects, he consistently resurfaces overlooked local micro-histories, positions the human figure as a timeless unit of measure in space, and conceptualizes the future as a shapeshifting, multilayered system of thought.

In 2025, Nancă presented Human Scale in the Romanian Pavilion at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale, a collaborative project developed with Muromuro Studio. Human Scale reframed architectural drawing as a form of “collective intelligence”, emphasizing the centrality of the human figure within 20th-century architectural discourse.

Gaep presented a work by Vlad Nancă in the group exhibition Memories and Prophecies (November 2025 – January 2026), where he participated as an invited artist. His first solo show with the gallery will open on April 24, 2026. 

“We are delighted to present Vlad Nancă’s first solo exhibition in Bucharest following his participation at the Venice Architecture Biennale, and to accompany him at this new stage of his career,” says Andrei Breahnă, co-founder of Gaep. “Blending historical and fictional layers in which multiple pasts and futures coexist, his work is certain to resonate strongly with our audiences.”

Vlad Nancă (b. 1979, Bucharest) studied at the National University of Arts, Department of Photography and Moving Image, Bucharest. Over the last two decades, his work was shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions in institutions such as FRAC des Pays de la Loire, Kunsthalle Bratislava, Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, MNAC Bucharest, Brukenthal Museum in Sibiu, City Museum of Ljubljana, Museion Bolzano, and in art and architecture biennials, including the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale. Recent solo exhibitions include shows as Galleria Il Ponte (Florence), Grotto Gallery (Bucharest), Institute of Contemporary Art Sofia, Kunsverein Ost (Berlin) and Suprainfinit (Bucharest). He is the winner of the 2025 ‘Peter Jecza’ Award for Sculpture of the Year.

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Featured image: Vlad Nancă, portrait photo by Alex Gâlmeanu. All artworks © Vlad Nancă