Kenopsia / Metanoia – Seminar and Studio Visit

Speakers: Ștefan Ungureanu, visual artist; George Anghelescu, visual artist

During the seminar and studio visit, visual artists Ștefan Ungureanu and George Anghelescu will present the exhibition Kenopsia / Metanoia, curated by art critic Dan Popescu and on view from December 13, 2025, to February 28, 2026, at InVitro Gallery in Cluj-Napoca.

“Ștefan Ungureanu and George Anghelescu are millennials. What specifically distinguishes Gen Y artists from their predecessors? In my view, it has to do with how—since most of them are urban dwellers—they relate to the future and the past. For Gen Y, the past does not carry the dramatic weight of tradition, and the future is viewed with a mixture of optimism and melancholy. The current exhibition presents two examples of affective-axiological visual positioning in relation to the future and the past.
Kenopsia is the eerie, desolate atmosphere of a place that is usually bustling with people and life but is now empty and quiet. It is one of those feelings for which one would not even suspect that there is a term to describe it. Ștefan Ungureanu creates an image that captures this feeling and makes it even more ineffable, in mental landscapes that clearly suggest a fictional future. Despite resembling a landscape reminiscent of an Arizona desert, it bears the traces of human terraforming and of a life that is still smoldering, or that can still be glimpsed. It is the image of the melancholy of the future.
George Anghelescu highlights how millennials relate to the past. Reiterating a point he has made before, for Generation Y, the past is either something to be ignored or left behind by coming to terms with its countless injustices. Visual metanoia is George’s obsession. No nation remains untainted by its history, and in each of his images, Anghelescu creates a tension between horror and beauty that speaks more powerfully than many historical treatises. (Text: Dan Popescu / Translation: Bertha Savu)