Private Life

Marieta Chirulescu & Ana Botezatu / Private Life

In an interview from 1978, Alice Neel stated: “When paintings or writing are good, it’s taken right out of life itself, to my mind, and put into the world. Now, that doesn’t mean that the work has to tell about real life. I mean, it can be abstract or anything, but the vitality is taken out of real living and put into the creative project, whatever it is.”

Though often labeled abstract, Marieta Chirulescu's works are grounded in the material environment. Her hybrid process—blending painting and digital printing—also operates as an hommage to the tangible: paper, thread, fabric, or space. Her current works further embrace physicality, incorporating found fabrics into assemblages that echo domestic gestures: cutting, pasting, folding, and layering. Chirulescu’s understated, tactile interventions resist digital slickness and celebrate reserved, intuitive acts.

Ana Botezatu focuses on clay's resilient materiality. Her ceramic objects range from whimsical figures to functional vessels and solemn tile-like forms. Her latest pieces, often unglazed or monochromatic, highlight clay’s spatial, almost architectural qualities—solid yet delicate. Both artists value subtle gestures and materials’ voices over grand narratives. As their works intertwine formally, assembled from pockets, vessels, and frames, so do their protective, reflective, and defiantly quiet approaches.