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Carmen Olteanu – contemporary Romanian visual artist
Carmen Olteanu is a contemporary Romanian visual artist based in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Her
work explores the psychological depth of human identity, moving fluidly between figurative
and abstract forms. With over 100 international exhibitions and symposiums across Europe
and the Middle East, Carmen’s art invites viewers into an emotional landscape where form,
color, and silence speak volumes.Her paintings often contain hidden, subtle details and
symbolic elements that invite viewers to look beyond the surface. She believes that “art does
not offer answers but opens doors.”
Carmen began her artistic path in Râmnicu Vâlcea during the communist period, first at the
Pioneers’ House and later at the High School of Fine Arts, where she studied sculpture. She
graduated in 2004 from the National University of Arts in Bucharest (Nicolae Grigorescu),
majoring in Painting, and later earned a Master’s and PhD in Fine and Decorative Arts.Her
doctoral thesis -The Portrait between Historical Confirmations and Personal Vision – laid the
foundation for a body of work rooted in psychological inquiry and visual storytelling.
In addition to her artistic career, Carmen has worked as a curator and art educator, including
teaching painting and drawing at the prestigious Nicolae Tonitza High School of Fine Arts in
Bucharest. She is also the founder and president of the Cultural-Artistic Foundation TotArt,
which supports artistic dialogue and cultural engagementArtist Statement
I paint to understand, to feel more deeply, and to give form to things that cannot be expressed
otherwise. My art began in the figurative, depicting faces, gestures, and gazes. Over time, I
felt the need for forms to flow more freely, more intuitively, toward abstraction.I find myself
in a continuous process of searching between the visible and the invisible, between the
concrete and the suggested.
I work with oil, acrylic, pastels, charcoal, and ink. Above all, I work with emotion. Materials
become extensions of an inner search and I choose them intuitively, depending on the state I
carry within.My layered compositions hold tensions between appearance and essence,
between what we see and what we feel.
Within my paintings I place carefully hidden details and symbolsthat reveal themselves only
to those who know how to read them. Abstraction in my work is not accidental, but a form of
release — of energy, of emotion.Emotion challenges me. Gesture corrects me.
My themes are rooted in the human condition and the spiritual dimension. The primary
question I ask through my work is this: How much meaning and emotional articulation can be
held in a single line or a stain of color? My art practice is a form of active meditation, a
confrontation with myself, and a deep commitment to introspection, symbolism, and
emotional resonance. -
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