Gaep welcomes Mihai Plătică
We are delighted to announce our representation of Mihai Plătică. The artist’s inaugural solo exhibition at the gallery, Alpher-Bethe-Gamow, will open on March 6, 2021.
Taking its title from a scientific paper that is considered the foundation for the Big Bang theory, the exhibition stems from a personal and artistic investigation into models of explaining and understanding creation. Mihai Plătică is drawn to natural phenomena, celestial objects and underground formations that he explores in photographs on the cusp of poetic figuration and abstraction. His works lead us into a territory at the edge of perception, in which we reflect on what is visible and what is invisible, and how one transforms into the other.
Art and science complement each other in Mihai Plătică’s world. His interest in physics runs the gamut, from optics to astronomy and cosmology. It informs his practice in a way that manages to spark the viewers’ sense of wonder and draw them further into mysterious landscapes, surprising topographies and experiments with light that prove abstraction can come as naturally to photography as it does to other mediums. By designing unique frames for his photographs, he encourages us to question what we see or, simply, to look again.
“Mihai’s enigmatic visual language and his approach to photographs as art objects create a distinct, captivating universe, in which you feel there is always something more to discover. We are delighted to be able to share his work with our audience and to present a new body of photographs and objects in his first solo exhibition at the gallery.” – Andrei Breahnă, co-founder, Gaep
”I have always been interested in the history of the body, the nature of materiality and the universal laws of physics. I like to conceive of objects/sculptures and photographs using scientific theories that allow for a different positioning. My approach is methodical, rational, but I try to open new perspectives on the world.” – Mihai Plătică
Based in Cluj-Napoca, Mihai Plătică (b. 1983) graduated with a degree in photography from the University of Art and Design – UAD. His solo exhibitions Pillars of Creation (2019) and The Wide Open Skin (2016) were presented by BARIL Gallery. In 2020, his work was shown in Departures From the Sphere, a group exhibition that was held in three different cities as part of Both Ways – a European co-production project that contributed to EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF2020, Trieste).
—
Images: Mihai Plătică, Chromatic Waves 1, 2021, inkjet print, 24 x 36 cm (1); Mihai Plătică, Regolith Simulant, 2021, inkjet print, 24 x 36 cm (2); portrait of the artist (3)
