The “Pavel Obreja and Hanna Kozeletska’s Exhibition”
The “Mihai Eminescu” Cultural Centre in Bucharest, in April hosted a sculpture and painting exhibition of two artists, husband and wife, suggestively entitled “April”
Ion Puican, 05.05.2024, 14:00
The two protagonists of this joint exhibition are sculptor Pavel Obreja, of the Republic of Moldova and Ukrainian, Hanna Kozeletska. A presentation of the aforementioned exhibition in Bucharest has been made by art critic Marius Tița.
Marius Tita:” Pavel Obreja is modeling portraits, he is modeling faces. He has brought Brancusi to Bucharest, one of the best portraits I have ever seen. Next was the statue of Eminescu. A small bronze statue forged with his own hands by a young man who has just celebrated his 33rd anniversary.”
Here is sculptor Pavel Obreja with more on this exhibition entitled April
Pavel Obreja: ”I’ve come here from the south of the Republic of Moldova. I came to Bucharest with an exhibition entitled “April”. It’s a joint exhibition of mine and my wife’s, Hanna. Why April and why Bucharest? Because I met Hanna in Bucharest in April. And we came here with 22 pieces of sculpture and Hanna brought 42 paintings.”
But what attracts Pavel Obreja to this sculpture technique?
Pavel Obreja: ”Mostly I like to show through sculpture how the shadow plays within the volume. This is what I like the most in a sculpture. When we watch a painting for instance, we are only seeing it from an angle. A sculpture makes us move around and see how the shadows play.”
Sculptor Pavel Obreja is making a description of his artistic education:
Pavel Obreja: ”I started to do modeling as early as the college, I graduated from the Chisinau-based „Alexandru Plămădeală” college. After that I got a degree from the Academy of Music and Fine Arts also in Chișinău, then the PhD in sculpture. I am very much into modeling portraits, you know, because in this way I can see, how the biggest sculptor, who is Mother-Nature is working on a man’s face. The changes that I see on a man’s face over the years are made by Mother-Nature and I try to transpose what nature has created.”
Pavel Obreja has also talked to us about the technique he employs while creating bronze sculptures:
Pavel Obreja: ”The technique is very complicated and time-consuming. But I very much like the fact that I am doing everything from scratch by myself, from the beginning to the end of the sculpture. And I put all my knowledge into the process, of course.”
The sculptor has also shared his opinion about the Ukrainian painter Hanna Kozeletska, his wife.
Pavel Obreja:” First Hanna Kozeletska is my wife and also my favourite painter. I hope her art is also appreciated by others as she works in a very special manner. And in her works one can easily notice the school of Kharkiv and Kyiv, as she does both easel and monumental painting. And by combining these two styles, some special effects are obtained.”
In the end of our discussion, Pavel Obreja has also confessed about the latest work in the exhibition in Bucharest, the central piece we could say: a portrait of the Romanian painter of international repute, Constantin Brâncuși, a portrait entirely worked in bronze.
Pavel Obreja:” This portrait has an interesting history, in my opinion. I kicked off this project in Kyiv, while doing my PhD studies, the second PhD. At that time I was seeing what I could call a creation crisis. I started modeling this portrait as I wanted to have one with Brancusi as he was a great sculptor himself, you know. Then I got a couple of orders, so that activity created more activities to say. Then I had to take a break, as I had to deal with some school issues, then war broke out in Ukraine so we had to go. That Brancusi in its first stage, a clay work, remained for a while at the workshop in Kyiv. Then I came back and took it to the Republic of Moldova, where I completed it with fresh powers, so to say. Everything went smoothly with this project and eventually I completed it easily as I saw in it some sort of a sculpture god. I didn’t want to create it like a god or something, but everything with this project went smoothly in that direction, you know… ”
(bill)
