The safe place

Coming from Romania, Dan Laurentiu Arcus graduated the University of Art and Design of Cluj-Napoca, a well known incubator of successful emergent artists. Living and working in Belgium Dan started focusing on painting and drawing only three years ago and his works are now part of more than one hundred private collections around the world. Faceless figures, in absurd situations, common people, living in an ignorant society are all usual subjects for Dan’s radiography of the contemporary times. In a very short period he managed to establish a style where the colour is treated as an unexpected intervention, sudden, like an accident. That creates action on the character sometimes static and a spectator himself. In each composition there is a strong relation between the figure, the gesture and the environment, with hidden meanings for which the title serves as a guide for contemplation. He works in multiple techniques and mediums with a preference for the dry pastel and charcoal because “it gives the painting a velvet texture with very little reflections which keeps the colours saturated and the contrasts deep and spectacular”.