The Winged from Șona 2006

Curator: Stefan Caltia's oil on canvas painting, "The Winged from Țona", painted in 2006 presents us with a rather intriguing tableau. My immediate reaction is one of slightly unsettling peace, a sense of something precious and fragile being preserved. Editor: Protected perhaps? Enclosed is more like it. Note the dome-like shape that traps a house and figure, creating visual tension between idyllic domesticity and sterile confinement. How does Caltia accomplish this sense of unease through materiality and facture? Curator: Well, consider the application of paint itself. It's incredibly thin, almost translucent in places. The muted, earthy palette reinforces this fragility. It’s clearly a hand-made piece, no digital intervention here, allowing the viewer to truly connect with the labour involved in creating such a work, and question its place as art. Editor: True, but let's not overlook the formal composition here. The sharp delineation between the blurred ‘curtains’ framing the work, and the hard, crisp edge of the glass dome; this creates a tension. And note the figure—almost ethereal—hovering over the mundane reality of the house beneath the bell jar. This sharp juxtaposition builds up visual and symbolic layers in a dreamlike, surreal tableau. Curator: Agreed. The materials – canvas, oil paint, these are traditional. However, their usage combined with such bizarre juxtaposition evokes the tensions within the social context. What elements contribute to this effect? Is it fairy painting as the tag claims or is there some critique embedded in the image, or both? Editor: Consider the contrasting textures. The rough weave of the canvas against the almost illusionistic transparency of the dome. This forces a shift in the viewer’s perception – from appreciating skillful brushwork to the illusion of reality represented on a 2D plane. How does this reflect the philosophical themes you propose, connecting with labor? Curator: It asks, doesn’t it, how labour impacts creativity? Does domesticity allow, restrict or nourish imagination. The Winged from Țona leaves so much open to question; perhaps a deliberate strategy, given its themes and process of creation. Editor: Precisely. Caltia utilizes classic painterly methods to question the stability and limits of our physical world. Ultimately, the painting leaves me with an evocative question. Where does our perceived security end and our actual freedom begin?