Calina Hiriza

b. February 5, 1981. Cluj, Romania

Before moving her home studio to Millburn, NJ in 2020, Calina has spent 20 years in New York City, 2 in Italy, and 17 in her native Romania.

Driven by an innate inquisitive nature, Calina’s work has evolved over the years into the abstract. Where the figurative could not answer, raw materials began to speak for themselves, asking for a life lived by a different set of rules.

In her latest work, she pushes the limits of the medium beyond the intended use, as creation is the only way to overcome the mundane and to generate anew. The series embodies her artistic transformation over the years and speaks to her desire of first confronting the undesirable, subsequently revealing its beauty. The usually discarded, dried medium is encased in resin, layer by layer. The result is an aesthetically striking and perfectly still moment of calculated discord. This portal to a new beginning proves that higher than actuality, stands possibility.

Traditionally-trained in the fine arts from a young age, Calina holds a BFA and AA from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.

Artist Statement

"The shaping and expression of substance that is otherwise inert is most interesting to me. The...

2005. Fashion Institute of Technology. BFA. New York, USA.

1998. Cooper Union. Summer Outreach program. New York, USA.

1997. Romulus Ladea Art School. Cluj, Romania.

2023. March 25 - April 22. Studio Montclair. Local Materiality. Montclair, NJ. Group Show.

2022. November 11-13. Art Fair 14C. Jersey City Armory, NJ.

2022. November 3-6. The Other Art Fair. Brooklyn, NY.

2022. June 18-July17. Brooklyn Waterfront Artist Coalition. Wide Open. Brooklyn, NY. Group show.

2022. May 19-June 18. J.Nunez Gallery. 4 Hands. Millburn, NJ. Two artist show.

2022 March. WO Foundation & Sergio Gomez. Disrupted. Online group show.

2022 March-April. Paper Mill Playhouse Gallery. Color Abstraction. Millburn, NJ. Group Show.