Caïn et Abel Artwork

Artist Profile Oana Itu is a contemporary painter who grew up in Romania during the 1980s and 1990s. From an early age, Oana demonstrated a passion for art, using unconventional materials due to limited resources. Although initially dreaming of a career in fashion design, Oana Itu pursued an academic path in literature at the Faculty of Letters in Cluj, Romania, followed by studies in architectural design in Canada. Throughout Oana It’s artistic career, she has held several successful exhibitions, notably in 2015, 2016, and 2017, where she garnered important awards and recognition. This period highlighted her capacity to blend architectural precision with the emotional depth of painting. Currently working as a designer, project coordinator, and manager, Oana recently returned to painting, embracing the medium as a natural extension of her creative expression. She continue to explore new techniques and materials, reflecting a deep connection to the textures and atmospheres of her past experiences. The year 2024 marked a powerful return to painting. Days and nights were spent in the studio, with weekly exhibitions and painting sales. It was an intensely vibrant year, filled with events and artistic exhibitions. Collaborating with the Romanian Consulate in Montréal, multiple exhibitions, galleries, alongside numerous collaboration requests and opportunities to work with established artists and key figures in the artistic world. For her, painting is life—it is a simple and natural gesture, like breathing. Time in the studio dissolves; it does not exist. It transforms into color on the canvas, into gestures, and even into words. The colors tell stories and create expressions on the characters’ faces, revealing traits and life histories! As a painter separated from her homeland, having emigrated 20 years ago, Oana expresses a deep longing in her paintings. She paints the people from the places she left two decades ago, capturing the emotions of reunions, and the faces of neighbors and those back home. She doesn’t paint places; she paints emotions. She doesn’t paint portraits; she paints unwritten stories.