SUZANA FÂNTÂNARIU

Profile

Brief Bio

• Born on September 15, 1947, in Baia, Suceava county, Romania
• Graduated from the Ioan Andreescu Academy of Art, Cluj, Romania, 1976
• Study scholarship at the Romanian Academy in Rome, Italy, 1985
• Presently, Professor Dr. at the University of Timisoara, Academy of Art

Art Associations Membership

• Romanian Artists Union
• Fédération Internationale Culturelle Féminine, Paris, France
• International Print Society, Krakow, Poland
• The Greci-Marino International Academy, Vercelli, Italy
• AIAP, Paris, France
• Women in Art, Bucharest, Romania

Awards

• Constantin Brancusi Scholarship, Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris 2006
• Visual Arts Award of the Ramuri magazine, Craiova, Romania, 2004
• First Prize at the International Miniature Art Biennial, Gornji Milanovac, Serbia and Montenegro, 2003
• Excellence Prize at the International Print Biennial, Beijing, China, 2003
• Pentru Merit In Grad De Cavaler national award for artistic achievement and culture promotion, 2000
• South Bohemia Artist Association prize, Ceke Budejovice, Czech Republic, 2000
• Romanian Artists Union prize, 1999
• Catul Bogdan prize of the International Drawing Biennial, 1999
• Silver Medal at the International Exhibition of Small Print, Beijing, China, 1998

• The First Prize at the International Art Biennial, Sharjah, UAE, 1997
• Honorary Diploma for academic achievement at the Ion Andreescu Academy of Arts, Cluj, Romania, 1996
• Second Prize at the International Biennial of Prints, Maastricht, The Netherlands, 1993
• First Prize at the International Art Biennial of Francophone Countries, Paris, France, 1992
• The Ex-Equo prize at the International Biennial of Woodcut, Banska-Bistrica, Slovakia, 1982
• Grand-Prix at the Voronetiana National Festival, Suceava, Romania, 1979
• Second Prize at the National Art Exhibition, Bucharest, Romania, 1977
• The Youth Prize at the National Art Exhibition, Cluj, Romania, 1976
• First Prize at the National Show of Art Teachers, Bucharest, Romania, 1976

References

• Timisoara Print (in Romanian), by Ioan Iovan, Cosmopolitan Art, Timisoara, 2005
• Bucovina Encyclopaedia (vol. 1, 2, in Romanian), by Emil Satco, Suceava, 2005
• Mirror in Front of the Woman (in Romanian), by Olivia Nitis, Triade, Timisoara, 2004
• The Dictionary of Contemporary Artists in Banat (in Romanian), by Ioan Iovan, Brumar, Timisoara, 2003
• The Experiment in Romanian Art after 1960 (in Romanian), by Alexandra Titu, Meridiane, Bucharest, 2003
• Timisoara in Three Friends (in Romanian), by Dan Mircea Cipariu, Mihai Zgondoiu & Robert Serban, Brumar, Timisoara, 2003

• Tradition and Postmodernism: Two Centuries of Visual Arts in Banat (in Romanian), Art Press, Timisoara, 2003
• Who's Who in Romania, Panayotis Vassos, Pegasus Press, Bucharest, 2002
• The Modern and Contenporary Art Dictionary (in Romanian), by Constantin Prut, Univers Enciclopedic, Bucharest, 2002
• The Apa Vie Almanac (in Romanian), the Fundatia Augusta Union, 2001
• Ipotesti - Topos eminescian (in Romanian), by Valentin Ciuca and Constantin Prut, Geea, Botosani, 2000
• Il Sacro nell' arte, Exhibit Catalogue, Bucharest, 1999
• The International Directory of Distinguished Leadership, ABI, North Carolina, 1998
• Style and Expressivity (in Romanian), by Ioan Iovan, Hestia, Timisoara, 1997
• Experiment (in Romanian), by Alexandra Titu, Soros Center for Contemporary Art, Bucharest, 1997
• Directory of print CD-ROM, Krakow, Poland, 1997
• Who's Who in International Art, Lausanne, Switzerland, 1996
• Encyclopaedia of Romanian Contemporary Artists (in Romanian), by Negoita Laptoiu, Arc 2000, 1996

• Le grand livre d'art des Salones et Bienales de France et leurs Exposants, Geneva, Switzerland, 1995
• Idea and Sensitivity: Trends and Tendencies in Romanian Contemporary Art (in Romanian) by Dan Grigorescu, Meridiane, Bucharest, 1991
• Artists from Bucovina (in Romanian), by Emil Satco, Iasi, 1991, 1984
• Spaces, Shapes, Colors in the Contemporary Art (in Romanian), by Horia Horsia, Meridiane, 1989
• Romanian Graphic Artists (prints, drawing, watercolor), by Vasile Dragut, Bucharest, 1980
• Women in The Work Constellation (in Romanian), by Nicolae Babalau, Scrisul Romanesc, Craiova, 1980
• Three Centuries under August Sun (in Romanian), by Vasile Florea, Meridiane, Bucharest, 1974

The Marked Bodies remind of the beauty of stained glass windows, in which the colours shiver clinging to each other, locked in distinct and detailed identities. Their soul has the sensuality of captivity, their guts have the texture of music. Suzana Fântânariu skillfully renders the miracle of life as well as the extatic motionlessness, her Marked Bodies bearing the cultural, dramatic guilt.

There are loners who assume the cultural burden of history as well as the risk, not always rewarded, of inventing and facing the unspoken, the unimaginable, of diving into the human spirit's depth. Suzana Fântânariu is such an artist, sober, tenacious, rational, despite the strange metaphysics of her art.

Wrote Jean François Mattei, a contemporary French philosopher, in his La barbarie interieure, essai sur l'immonde moderne: "A world with a disappeared perspective becomes an immonde." And here they are, in Suzana Fântânariu's Portraits: fulgurant models of the unworld's sap, the rapacious abyss, the long-raised in the humanity's slums pettiness, with its untimely outbursts, often disfiguring, as well as the resulting victories and losses. An admirable effort, as it proves that the artist has a free pass to the collective uncounscious, as well as the strength of someone who dares to depict a latent catastrophe or an erupting vulcano.