Codruța Cernea

Codruța Cernea (b. 1979, Târgu-Mureș) uses painting as the ideal medium to exercise possibilities and to discover hidden aspects of her own existence. Her works have a profound meditative atmosphere, often capturing private moments that reflect the growing sense of solitude in contemporary human experience. Nostalgic scenarios of the future, individual experiences as subtle mirrors of collective transformations, landscapes, and human nature with its contradictory emotional needs are some of the themes explored by the artist in her distinct and ever-changing pictorial universe.

Selected solo shows: Isychia. The Phantom Island (2024, Zina Gallery, Cluj-Napoca), An Invincible Summer (2021, Mobius Gallery, Bucharest), Paradise of Lost Desires (2021, Mobius Gallery, Bucharest), Future Nostalgia (2019, Mobius Gallery, Bucharest). Selected group shows: Touch Nature (2025, Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz), Touch Nature (2024,, /SAC, Bucharest), Your Germs Get Jet Lagged, Too (2023, Zina Project Space, Cluj), Les Femmes du Feu (2022, Sector 1 Gallery, Bucharest), Why Have There Been No Great Eastern Women Artists? (2022, curated by Eszter Csillag for ANS AZURA).

• Education
• 2005-2008
  • BA, National University of Arts, Bucharest, Romania, Faculty of Fine Arts, Study program Painting
• 2008-2010
  • MFA, National University of Arts, Bucharest, Romania, Faculty of Fine Arts, Study program Painting

• Selected exhibitions
• 2024
  • Isychia. The Phantom Island, Zina Gallery, Cluj-Napoca
  • Your Germs Get Jet Lagged, Too, Zina Project Space, Cluj-Napoca
  • Monstrul, Pătratul și Hohotul, Museum of Recent Art, Bucharest
• 2023
  • This Will Feel Like A Strange and Warm Embrace, duo show with Roberta Curcă, The H Gallery, Bucharest
  • The Color of Sound, Museum of Recent Art, Bucharest
  • Every News Is A Hand-Painted Story, Laborna Gallery, Bucharest
• 2022
  • Why Have There Been No Great Eastern Women Artists?, curated by Eszter Csillag for ANS AZURA
  • Les Femmes du Feu, Sector 1 Gallery, Bucharest
• 2021
  • An Invincible Summer, Mobius Gallery, Bucharest
  • Paradise of Lost Desires, Mobius Gallery, Bucharest
• 2020
  • Out of the Blue, Museum of Recent Art, Bucharest
  • Maybe, for Sure, Laborna Gallery, Bucharest
• 2019
  • Future Nostalgia, Mobius Gallery, Bucharest
  • Fair Maidens, Museum of Recent Art, Bucharest

• 2017
  • 100 Years of Art in Masterpieces: Going East, Romanian Cultural Institute, London
  • Mogodorf 10×10, Atelier am Eck, Düsseldorf
• 2016
  • Float, Glide, Fly, H’art Gallery, Bucharest
  • No Other Time, No Other Place, Atelier am Eck, Düsseldorf
  • Memory Leaks – NAG Retrospect, ARCUB, Bucharest
• 2015
  • Laborna & Friends – Work in Progress II, Laborna Gallery, Bucharest
• 2014
  • 11172014 Project, ArtYourself Gallery, Bucharest
• 2013
  • BOLD, Pop Up Gallery, Bucharest
  • Finish It, atelier 030202, Bucharest
• 2012
  • Together Alone, atelier 030202, Bucharest
• 2011
  • Young Romanian Artists. Hand-stitched Portraits, 26 Gallery, Bucharest
  • Molcom tare, factor92 Gallery, Bucharest
• 2010
  • Zoomania.ro, MNAC, Bucharest
• 2009
  • DE SE NU?, D Gallery, Bucharest
  • I Wonder What You’re Thinking, MORA Gallery, Bucharest