SIBIU.- Transilvania / Extravaganza brings together 130 works by Romanian painter Ștefan Câlția—paintings, drawings, prints, and artist's books spanning 1970 to 2026—across approximately 1,000 square meters.
One of the major figures of Romanian contemporary art, Câlția trained under illustrator Julius Podlipny in Timișoara and later under Corneliu Baba at the Institute of Fine Arts in Bucharest. His practice is rooted in Transylvanian rural space and its relationship to nature, memory, and the imaginary. He is now placed in lineage with Füssli, Zurbarán and Goya, but indebted to Max Beckmann, for the layering of his symbolic worlds, and compared to Chagall—telling about the possibility of the eastern context to have dreams; Italian nineteenth-century painting is also traceable in his use of diagonal perspective and attention to texture that we can see mainly in the still lifes. Together with the Ștefan Câlția Foundation, which preserves and promotes his work, the artist has long been involved in the protection and restoration of historic buildings in Transylvania.
The curatorial concept by Liviana Dan positions Câlția as a guardian of Transylvania, a role he has sustained across five decades of practice. Having become a deeply contemporary painter through a conceptualism of method—serialization and repetition—, his work holds Transylvania in tension between real and imaginary territory, filtered through memory and poetic transformation. His works are not allegories or fables alone; they constitute a political argument. The attachment is paradoxical: an artist who experiments, yet is drawn to staying in place, to restoration, to leaving something behind. The exhibition's itinerary moves from the edge of the forest and village through the community and professions of rural life, birds and flight, domestic interiors, and the fantastic imaginary specific to Transylvanian folk tradition (distinct from surrealism), arriving finally at the worlds of circus and theatre.
To host the show, the Former Ursulines Convent—a historic monument built in 1474, converted into a pedagogical school in the eighteenth century and largely abandoned for the last 16 years—underwent a complex process of cleaning and preparation, carried out with attention to its existing historic fabric, securing its use for future artistic and cultural projects. The monument’s fragile condition was incorporated into the curatorial and spatial design, building a dialogue between art and architecture. A damaged section of the roof was restored; ticket revenues support Monumentum Association (Ambulanța pentru Monumente), which has been working for over a decade to secure historic monuments across Romania.
As part of a strategy to extend the visibility of Câlția's work internationally, a series of curatorial visits have been organized with: Natascha Burger, Senior Director, Hubert Winter Gallery, Vienna, and Head of Estate Birgit Jürgenssen; David Komary, Director, Galerie Stadtpark, Krems; Julia Lerch Zajączkowska, Curator, Kunstmuseum Bochum; Maja Ćirić, independent curator, Serbia; and Many Body, curatorial collective, Romania.
The exhibition is curated by Liviana Dan, critic, art historian, curator, and one of the most influential figures of Romanian contemporary art. She founded the Department of Contemporary Art of the Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu, was the ad interim general director of the National Contemporary Art Museum in Bucharest, and co-founded the alternative art space Kunsthalle Bega in Timișoara.
Liviana Dan worked with Alex Mirutziu (performing artist) as curatorial assistant, while Alexandra Mihali led the artistic direction. The exhibition design is made by architect Eliza Yokina, with its production coordinated by Diana Iabrașu. Project management by Matei Câlția, Mihaela Irimescu and Ioana Gonțea. Visual identity by Otilia Fiastru. Accompanying catalogue edited by curator Monica Dănilă. The exhibition was initiated by the Ștefan Câlția Foundation, Galeria Posibilă and Artep Gallery Association, in partnership with the Brukenthal National Museum Sibiu and the Sibiu International Theatre Festival, and with the generous support of Regina Maria Health Network and CEC Bank. In parallel, the Brukenthal National Museum holds a capsule exhibition placing works by Ștefan Câlția on natural themes in dialogue with two paintings from the museum's heritage.
