There is a poignant quality in Manuela Holban’s paintings (USA). From an almost blurred and unclear background, figures and motifs emerge as from a dream. The illusion of the past – or the tribute to the old masters, appears through a modern language of painting. The images seem to be just there momentarily, as they were needed to be seen by the viewer. Yet this illusion conjures up something fragile and remote. Because in this illusion that Holban transports us, everything will disappear again as the magic lantern fades, leaving for us a world of timeless shadows. There is a poignant quality in Manuela Holban’s paintings (USA).
Maria Pestana, Maria Pestana Gallery, Madrid, Spain
Maria Pestana, Maria Pestana Gallery, Madrid, Spain
Four of Manuela Holban's paintings have been my treasured companions for over three years. They engage me in dialogue as dear friends would. Not a verbal dialogue but one deriving from images of the soul. I often find myself transfixed on a small area of a painting, and after several minutes of focusing my attention there, a world begins to appear from the shadows. Each time it is a different world depending on the intensity and angle of light. I am pulled into an unknown dimension of time and space. Recently I was rewarded with the sensation of movement and heightened energy in the space of a mirror in one of Manuela's paintings. I kept my gaze on the mirror and saw what seemed like a video of Manuela painting this painting.
Extraordinary! With patience, I have learned how to interact with the paintings and, in so doing, am learning how to view life I all its shadowy
mystery. I am not alone when her paintings are within view. They listen to my inner longings and respond accordingly.
Jeanne Kent art collector
Manuela Holban’s paintings are sensuous, mysterious, evocative works of art. Her dream work imagery speaks of hidden secrets, of private emotions, of
pain perhaps. One has to ask what is behind the masks, what is truly reflected in the mirrors. These are not paintings for easy glances, but for slow discovery. The viewer is lured to spaces open to possibility, to timeless, infinite corridors. Her palette is rich with whatever colors feed her. A brilliant conversation of emerald, blues and her trademark red. Forms hide and reappear, each time from a different angle, each time untouchable, hard to grasp. Venetian figures of other centuries people the canvas. Carnival reigns. Holban’s art is informed by her Romanian origins and culture.
Roxana Martin, Curator
December 2011
Crossing Borders: An International Experience’
What:
New works by International Artists representing 18 countries
When:
Through Dec. 29. 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays
Where:
Gallerie Chiz, 5831 Ellsworth Ave., Shadyside
Details:
412-441-6005 or www.galleriechiz.com
What:
New works by International Artists representing 18 countries
When:
Through Dec. 29. 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays
Where:
Gallerie Chiz, 5831 Ellsworth Ave., Shadyside
Details:
412-441-6005 or www.galleriechiz.com
By Kurt Shaw
Art Critic
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Published: Wednesday, November 21, 2012, 8:52 p.m.
For the first time ever, Gallerie Chiz in Shadyside has expanded its changing monthly exhibitions to explore an international scope. Representing 18 countries, the “Crossing Borders” exhibit features dozens of fresh new works by artists from across the globe, many of whom live in the United States.
Like many of the artists whose works are on display, Romanian Manuela Holban’s paintings reflects her origins and culture. Born and educated in Bucharest, Holban has lived and worked in the United States since 1987. In the gallery, 32 of her works are spread throughout the space, with 14 in the main display area.
Nearly all portraits, they are arranged like a chessboard where figures from the past — some real like “Duquesa (Duchess) of Alba,” “Marie Antoinette” or “Saskia” — are arranged among some imaginary, such as “Danae” and “Salomea.”
They are “coming and going in an endless voyage,” says the artist, who favors a rich palette and the build up of heavily textured surfaces, resulting in a veil-like, almost-ethereal feeling to the works.
Art Critic
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Published: Wednesday, November 21, 2012, 8:52 p.m.
For the first time ever, Gallerie Chiz in Shadyside has expanded its changing monthly exhibitions to explore an international scope. Representing 18 countries, the “Crossing Borders” exhibit features dozens of fresh new works by artists from across the globe, many of whom live in the United States.
Like many of the artists whose works are on display, Romanian Manuela Holban’s paintings reflects her origins and culture. Born and educated in Bucharest, Holban has lived and worked in the United States since 1987. In the gallery, 32 of her works are spread throughout the space, with 14 in the main display area.
Nearly all portraits, they are arranged like a chessboard where figures from the past — some real like “Duquesa (Duchess) of Alba,” “Marie Antoinette” or “Saskia” — are arranged among some imaginary, such as “Danae” and “Salomea.”
They are “coming and going in an endless voyage,” says the artist, who favors a rich palette and the build up of heavily textured surfaces, resulting in a veil-like, almost-ethereal feeling to the works.
- The Valley News, Lebanon, New Hampshire|January 19, 2006 “AVA offers a pair of counterweights in an exhibit of work from its figure-drawing classes and in a show of drawings and paintings by part-time Hanover resident Manuela Holban. Tucked into the tightly enclosed annex gallery, Holban’s work renders a mysterious dream world populated by colorful, strangely faceless figures, women in opulent costumes, dark hallways and rooms with tall ceilings. The multitude of images creates a compete universe of fanciful and inexplicable activity…” ~ Alex Hanson
- The Valley News, Lebanon, New Hampshire|January 19, 2006 “The current exhibits at AVA Gallery and Art Center balance the abstract and the real, the masculine and the feminine and the perceived and the imagined so well it’s a bit spooky… {counterbalancing} is a show of Manuela Holban’s mysterious drawings and paintings….” …
- The Gazette Entertainment|October 27, 1999 “Manuela Holban’s pink harlequins, wooden and remote as they perform and posture in costume, tear away at the social conventions that disguise and distort humanity. “Suzanna”, dressed in a ruff with leg-of-mutton sleeves on her pink body suit, bicycles across the papers. She turns her head towards us, smile stiff and fixed, long eyelashes batting. But her legs are mechanical prostheses and she is performing with a disability. Mozart parades in frippery with pointed and heeled shoes. Casanova performs while carrying a rabbit. Most telling is Holban’s one oil painting. An elderly businesslike Casanova, rouged and powdered, skates through a Renaissance style hall carrying a doll-like woman like a piee of lifeless baggage. The perversions and limitations imposed by society are presented with eye sharp and tongue in cheek.” ~ Nancy Unger
- Capitol Hill House and Garden Tour: 45th Annual Tour, brochure, Washington, D.C. Both Jeannie and Christopher work for the U.S. Attorney’s office, and are on loan to the Senate – she to Senator Durbin and he to the Majority Leader. Their love for Romanian-trained international artist Manuela Holban, whose work depicting Aphrodite in “Cythera (the Isle of Love)” is the focal point of the living room. Holban’s use of warm, rich hues led the Rhees to select the room’s palette with the painting in mind.