The international exhibition TERRA LUCIDA – Two artistic worlds that enhance each other: Kancsura István and Radu Șerban

The international exhibition Terra Lucida, presented at BWA SOKÓŁ Gallery in Nowy Sącz, Poland, from 10 July to 29 August 2026, brings together two major artistic voices from Transylvania, Romania: Kancsura István and Radu Șerban. Organized in partnership with the Cluj-Napoca Art Museum and curated by Dr. Dan Breaz, the exhibition includes painting, drawing, digital print, object, installation and video works, offering a concentrated perspective on contemporary Romanian art from Transylvania.

The title Terra Lucida — meaning “transparent earth” or “luminous earth” in a metaphysical and spiritual sense — suggests a space of clarity, memory, inner vision and artistic revelation. The exhibition proposes a dialogue between two complementary artistic worlds, both deeply connected to experiment, spirituality, archaic forms and contemporary visual thought.

Although Kancsura István and Radu Șerban belong to different generations, their works meet through a shared concern for the relationship between matter and light, visible and invisible, memory and transcendence. Kancsura’s art often transforms archaic, symbolic and religious references into a contemporary visual language, while Radu Șerban’s work explores memory, transparency, reflection and the poetic transformation of personal and cultural experience.

An important part of the exhibition is represented by works from the collection of the Cluj-Napoca Art Museum. These include Kancsura István’s The Father of the Prodigal Son and ten works by Radu Șerban from the cycle The Image of the Image, in which biographical memories and fragments of a vanished world are transformed into digital prints on canvas, acquiring a strong museum-like and contemplative character.

Through the association of these two artistic approaches, Terra Lucida becomes a visual and spiritual territory in which the archaic, the conceptual, the experimental and the poetic coexist. The exhibition reveals art as a form of knowledge, a lens through which reality can be perceived differently, beyond ordinary appearances. In this sense, the works of Kancsura István and Radu Șerban illuminate each other, creating two artistic worlds that mutually enhance and deepen one another.