Exhibition: Beyond What Meets the Eye. Photography

  The Art Museum of Cluj-Napoca, a public institution of county interest operating under the authority of the Cluj County Council, in partnership with IAGA Contemporary Art gallery, is organizing the collective exhibition "Beyond What Meets the Eye" from 6 - 24 May, 2026. This large-scale project brings together the artistic visions of Marcello Grassi, Nicola Vinci, and Ștefan Bădulescu.

  The opening reception will take place on Wednesday, May 6, 2026, starting at 5:00 PM, in the presence of the curators Liviu Bulea and Oana-Maria Pop.

  The exhibition proposes an incursion into photography viewed as a language of introspection and memory. Although the practices of the three artists are anchored in different visual contexts, they converge around the same intention: to look beyond the surface and discover the invisible layers that shape the human experience. In this space of reflection, the image does not seek spectacle, but rather the essence of reality revealed slowly through attention and presence.

  Marcello Grassi highlights a constant dialogue between photography and archaeology, investigating the "Anatomy of Time" through traces of the past preserved in historical sites and European architecture. Nicola Vinci, whose sensibility is deeply influenced by his training in painting, constructs suspended spaces and lyrical atmospheres where the mundane becomes a territory of spirituality and anticipation. Ștefan Bădulescu, a visual artist and faculty member at UAD Cluj-Napoca, expands the expressive potential of photography through digital collage, transforming immediate reality into a surrealist world filled with symbols and layered meanings.