BIOGRAPHY

Diana Chelaru is an Expressionist artist and muralist whose work is known to delve into fragments of a secretive place where femininity and self are re-imagined—and triumph and vulnerability are laid bare.

Her style is a unique blend of Symbolism, Human Allegory and Jugendstil (the German branch of Art Nouveau) Ornamentation which results in a substantial body of highly moving and intensely ornate paintings, at the center of which stands the female figure. And while the feminine form is perhaps a hallmark subject of her works, they encompass much more than the reclamation of suppressed creativity, symbolic expression, and feministic re-interpretation. Figures look as if they are frozen into the rich flowering of modern ornament. The heightened sensuality of the decorative ornamentation almost obliterates the human figure, transforming extreme stylization and artifice into a meaningful and deeply symbolic visual expression

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Diana’s inspiration draws also from her childhood in communist Romania—an experience that left her creative intuition unrealized at the time, if not subjugated at the very least.

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As an art student she was offered the opportunity to work as a muralist and later on she worked as a mural preservationist and helped restore the elaborate frescoes at the Moldovita Monastery (a 15th-century UNESCO World Heritage site). During this time, Diana not only learned the intricacies of old-world craftsmanship, but also the profound symbolism and spirituality in Byzantium art, which also continue to influence her artistic sensibilities. 

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She moved to New York to pursue her artistic career and to continue her art studies after graduating from George Enescu University of Arts in Romania.

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Soon after she got her Master Degree in Art History from Queens College in New York, she started showing in galleries in Manhattan and New Jersey. This lead to her being between the first series of artists to sign a contract with a curated online art gallery, back in 2009. Since then, Diana has taken part in international art fairs and her work got to be much appreciated both by public and private collectors.
 

Diana is represented by State Of The Art Agency, who is managing her while curating creative collaborations and acting as the primary art dealer for the artist.