“Influences”

The "Prof. Eng. Dimitrie Leonida" National Technical Museum in Bucharest hosted the opening of the exhibition "Influences", by visual artist Alex Manea

Ion Puican, 31.05.2025, 11:39

The “Prof. Eng. Dimitrie Leonida” National Technical Museum in Bucharest hosted, in late April, the opening of the exhibition “Influences”, by visual artist Alex Manea. Alex Manea’s project is a complex approach that starts from the assumption that, for an artist, being open to the influence of the works of other visual artists constitutes a nodal point of artistic creation, capable of transmitting unique messages through new works that integrate reinterpreted, taken over, adapted elements, also through innovation, having as a source of inspiration the works of artists admired by the creator. Here is what the artist himself told us about the exhbition he titled “Influences”:

“The exhibition started from the idea of conveying a message that is often intentionally omitted or circumvented, namely that art stems from art. Any work is to a certain extent influenced by other works. Artists are inspired by other artists and create new works using these influences. I wanted to expose precisely this taboo subject, which is not really talked about, because, most of the time, artists do not want to recognize and present their sources of inspiration, and thus show the public this side that can very rarely be observed and analyzed.”

What does the series of works exhibited by Alex Manea in the “Influences” exhibition include?

“The series includes about three times more works than those presented in the exhibition, so I had to make a selection. I tried to choose works whose source of inspiration was better known artists and I tried to maintain a balance between visual and conceptual influences.”

The artist also talked about the sources of inspiration for the works chosen in the exhibition. Can they be easily identified by the public or does ambiguity play a role in the creation of artist Alex Manea?

“Some sources of inspiration are easy to identify, others are harder to detect. I didn’t try to do this in any controlled manner. I simply felt inspired by some of them and passed on the visual side to others. I chose to use more of the conceptual part of the source works. I then wanted the audience to form their own questions and answers related to these aspects. Although it is an exhibition that lays the books bare, it still had to maintain a dose of mystery, and for this I also used older works, where I later associated my work with another work, which still had common elements, precisely to highlight the fact that these associations occur, whether they are real or not.”

How is such a discourse received in the current artistic context, in which originality is considered an essential criterion? Alex Manea explained:

“In an artistic context where originality is often considered an essential criterion, this discourse that I provoked, which affirms the derivative nature of art, I think was surprisingly well received.”

But what was the reaction of the visiting public or even other artists who saw “Influences”?

“The audience was really interested in this information, in the way I put everything on a platter and in how I tackled and presented this subject. Visitors had various reactions. Some congratulated me for approaching a subject, as I said, considered taboo by a large part of the artistic environment. Others told me that the exhibition made them reflect on their own influences, something they had not done before.”

Alex Manea explained why he chose the National Technical Museum as an exhibition space.

“The exhibition was held at the National Technical Museum, which created an interesting association between science and artistic introspection. The space usually dedicated to functional objects provided an interesting contrast for my works, which propose an exposure and analysis of influences. It was as if I had placed an invisible process in a setting that celebrates the visible and the concrete. I think this contrast brought added strength to the works.”

At the end of the interview, visual artist Alex Manea talked to us about the feedback received during the “Influences” exhibition:

“Reflecting on the exhibition at the end, the reactions were encouraging. We received honest and positive feedback from visitors, some of whom even returned multiple times. The exhibition managed to open a real conversation not only with the viewer, but also between viewers.” (MI)