ARTIST STATEMENT

I was a physician and an immigrant before I was a full-time artist. These are attributes that shape my story, and I proudly carry with me for this lifetime. They are the source of inspiration and the engine at the heart of my art.

Leaving behind my natal country, my family and friends imbue my creations with melancholy and nostalgia. Romanian Spirit is unique due to its turmoiled history of two millennia of oppression and perennial revival, defeat, and re-birth. It is a fatalistic view married to an immortal zest for life. Places and people from another time and continent populate my work. While I re-animate them, I create a respite and meditation space, a shrine to my other life, and my tribe.

I have worked with patients since the 1980s. I witnessed the border between life and death, the newborn's vigor, the comatose's lethargy, the new parent's excitement, and the widowed sorrow. This sweet burden requires a balancing act. I use the creative process to dissect the soul's journey, deconstruct emotional events, and tap into a higher reality with which Romanian Spirit directly connects.

Wanderers have imaginary roots; their home is a timeless realm, a mythical stretch between estranged and familiar. Like all folks in exile, the story is paramount as, ultimately, it is the only thing one can gather in an instant and run. My art reflects the breadth and immediacy of this journey. For many decades now, my home is the United States of America. I love my adoptive country more than words can say, as it gave me the chance to reach my full potential. Deep inside, though, I have that Romanian Spirit, silent but immortal, smoldering in my primary thoughts and emotions, in that very place where art arises.

My work is the instrument I use to understand the world and give meaning to the events that shape it. The process is eclectic: I experimented with large, interactive installations, short videos, and 2-D work. In the last several years, I use painting as the preferred medium, as I believe it is the most subtle way to create compelling, engaging visual experiences. My style is a continuum between figurative and abstract; sometimes, I want to emphasize the narrative; other times, the visual abstraction triggers pure emotion.

I create for the masses. My work is a dedication to humanity common in us by employing the simplest of the heart's building blocks: love, survival, death, longing, sacrifice, memory, and imagination.

BIO

Savu escaped Communist Romania during the darkest years of Ceausescu's dictatorship. She is a board-certified cardiologist with a long-lasting passion for art. She obtained her MFA from MICA in Baltimore. She was awarded the C. Sylvia and Eddie C. Brown Studio at the Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower in Baltimore. Savu started as a sculptor, creating large interactive installations. Her preferred medium now is painting as she finds it a more powerful expression tool. Her inspiration comes from her life as a physician witnessing continuous human struggle. Her work's central themes revolve around the melancholy idea of an immortal soul caught in a perishable body and the nostalgia of lost roots. Her work was shown in national and international shows, and it is part of private and commercial collections. Savu is a full-time artist now working in her studio in Jonesboro, AR. She prepared two solo shows in 2020: at Dacia Gallery in New York and Art House in Jonesboro, AR. Due to Covit-19, both shows were postponed. Savu's work can be seen online via her website, Instagram, and Facebook.

 

Resumé | click here to download

RESUMÉ

EDUCATION IN THE ARTS

  • 2013Masters of Fine Arts, Rinehart School of Sculpture, Maryland College of Art, Baltimore, MD

  • 2010 Bachelor of Fine Arts, major in Sculpture, Summa Cum Laude, Arkansas State University

  • 2007 Art History and Fashion Design, Florence University of the Arts, Florence, Italy

AWARDS

  • TRAHCs 30th Annual Juried Exhibition, Honorable Mention, 2018.

  • 2013 Maryland Institute College of Art Fellowship at Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower, Baltimore, MD

  • 2013 Finalist Walters Traveling Fellowship, Baltimore, MD

  • 2011 Merit Scholarship Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD

  • 2011 College of Fine Arts Chancellor’s Scholar Award

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

  • 2019 Solo Show at Governor’s Mansion, Little Rock, AR  2018 Where Am I From?, Adams-Vines Gallery, Northeastern College

  • 2017girl-friends,BradburyArtMuseum,Jonesboro,AR

  • 2014 Les enfants qui s'aiment Artscape 2014, Baltimore, MD

  • 2013 Ladder at Mount Royal, Artscape, Baltimore, MD

  • 2012 Lost at Sea, Salobreña Mon Amour, Great White Wall, Gateway, Baltimore, MD

  • 2012 Cutting Edges, Creative Alliance, Baltimore, MD

  • 2010 The Ladder, site specific solo installation, Mount Royal Station Building, MICA, Baltimore, MD

  • 2010 US – The Armory Show, Armory, Jonesboro, AR

UP AND COMING

  • Solo Show, Art House Downtown Jonesboro, 2020

  • Stepping Out of Paradise, solo show, Dacia Gallery, New York, NY, July 2020 (postponed due to COVIT-19)

  • 2020 Teeth, Hair and other Human Feelings, collaboration with Karla Keller

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2018

  • Black Out, juried show, “The Curious Case of Morning Talk”, Ashton Gallery, San Diego, CA.

  • 64 ARTS National Juried Exhibition, “Against the Yellowed Wall”, Monmouth, IL.

  • TRAHCs 30th Annual Juried Exhibition, Honorary Mention, Texarkana, TX.

2016

  • Chasing Ghosts, juried show, Mid 50s One Early Afternoon, Verum Ultimum Art Gallery, Portland, OR

  • Target, The Original Sin, Dacia Gallery, New York, NY

  • Mid 50's One Early Afternoon, Verum Ultimum Art Gallery, Portland, OR

  • Counts Majewski, Majewska and Dogs, Annemarie Arts Center, Smithsonian Institution

  • Ma, I Need You, juried, https://focuspointshape.com/exhibitions/winners-archive/

  • Alpha Untitled, The 8th edition of the Asia Contemporary Art Show, Conrad Hong Kong.

  • Alpha Untitled, Art Busan, South Korea with Space 776, Brooklyn, NY.

2015

  • Romanian Impressions, Dacia Gallery, New York, NY.

  • Long Years After series, Aqua Art Miami, Miami Beach, Florida.

2014

  • TUGA series, Aqua Art Miami, Miami Beach, FL

  • Stories, juried international photography competition: "Next Day's Sunrise" received honourable mention; Werk Academy and PH21 Contemporary Photography Gallery,
    Budapest, Hungary

  • Sibiu, Sibiu, Romania

2013

  • Transformer, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

  • London Calling, juried, London, UK

  • Academy2013, juried, ConnerSmith Contemporary Gallery, Washington, DC

  • The Story of the Creative, juried, See/Exhibition Space, New York, NY

  • Vivante, Riggs Gallery, Baltimore, MD

  • The Story Book Poem, group show, West North Fifth Gallery, Baltimore, MD

  • On Loan: FORMALITY, Area 405, Baltimore, MD, regional student exhibition juried by Cara Ober

  • The Three Graces, Unravel the Code, Roodkapje Gallery, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

2012

  • Stitches and Switches, Mount Royal Station, MICA, Baltimore, MD

  • Exile, Maryland Institute College of Art MFA Exhibition, Fox3 Gallery, Baltimore, MD

  • Flux, Fox3 Gallery, Baltimore, MD, juried show by Tony Ransom

  • The Rainbow Wheel, (e)merge juried show, Washington, DC

  • Mihaela's World, Influx Gallery, Baltimore, MD

  • Rhin-O-Might, Maryland Institute College of Art, Fox3 Gallery, Baltimore, MD

  • MICA MFA Exhibition, group show, North Avenue Market Place Gallery, Baltimore, MD

  • Mighty Aphrodite2, USA Science and Engineering Festival, Washington, DC

  • V-Day, group show, Gateway Gallery, MICA, Baltimore, MD, juried by Kristen Smith

  • Mighty Aphrodite1, juried by Valeska Populoh, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD

  • White, Gallery 500, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD, juried by George Belcher

2011

  • Rhinocuts, group show, Fox 3 Gallery, Rinehart School of Sculpture, Baltimore, MD

  • Where Is the Snow of Yesterwinters?, Bradbury Gallery, Jonesboro, AR

  • Midlife Crisis, The Center for Fine Art Photography, juried show by Amber Terranova

  • Caged Virgin, Installation, Art Gallery Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AR, Juried

2009

  • Hidden Beauty, Sculpture, Art Gallery Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AR, Juried 2008  For You, Arkansas State University Art Gallery, Jonesboro, AR, juried by Dr. Maria Buszek

  • Untitled, Director’s Choice, Watson Gallery, "El Muertos Dulce", Johnson City, TX, Juried by George Krause and Carol Watson

  • Trinity, Art Gallery Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AR, Juried

  • Run Forest Run, Art Gallery Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AR, Juried

  • Sugar Coated, Sculpture, Art Gallery Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AR, Juried

SELECTED PRIVATE AND PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

  • Unknown Hero, First Community Bank, Jonesboro, AR

  • Grandparents, Chestnut Hill, MA, private collection

  • Grandmother Next to the Bee Hive, Chestnut Hill, MA, private collection

  • Liz, private collection

  • Body Language, Pain Center, Jonesboro, AR

  • Cup, Montessori School, Jonesboro, AR “Seed”, private collection

  • Fish woman, The Afternoon Coffee, private collection

  • Nudes, private collection

  • Redhead, private collection

  • Trees, private collection

  • Tree of Life, The Red Shoe, private collection

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

COMMUNITY WORK

  • 2006 Started Lifeline to Art Scholarship Endowment Fund, assisting deserving students pursuing art education at Arkansas State University.