Oana Maria Pop

Born 1989 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Pop
Oana Maria

Oana Maria Pop’s practice investigates how the human body, particularly the female body, is perceived, constructed, and abstracted within collective discourse. Her work examines the tension between lived bodily reality and the symbolic frameworks that seek to define it. By reconfiguring the human form into stylised and often ambiguous shapes, she reveals the risks that arise when cultural myths and imposed narratives override individual experience.

Working across painting, industrial silicone, and photography, Pop creates a dialogue between abstraction and documentation. Silicone enables her to mould idealised or fragmented corporeal forms, while photography anchors her practice in the physical reality of the body. This juxtaposition challenges viewers to confront the gap between representation and lived truth, and to question how visual language shapes societal perceptions.

Her broader practice is informed by personal geography; the neighbourhoods and environments that have marked her experience, as well as by the traces left on the body by external forces. In recent years, her research has focused on the representation of women in art and society, critically addressing the persistence of rape myths, domestic violence, and systemic forms of abuse against women and girls. Through this work, she exposes how normalized narratives can obscure violence and perpetuate harm.

Earlier projects explored R.E.M. dreaming as a generational metaphor in post-communist Romania, alongside investigations into consumerism through the visual language of eating and consumption. These inquiries continue to inform her understanding of the body as both subject and site of cultural inscription.

EDUCATION

2020 – Present: PhD student, University of Fine Arts and Design, Cluj-Napoca, RO
2011 – 2013 – MA University of Fine Arts and Design, Cluj-Napoca, RO
2008 – 2011 – BA University of Fine Arts and Design, Cluj-Napoca , RO
2012 – 2013 – Erasmus internship at Tanya Leighton Gallery, Berlin, DE;
2010 – Erasmus scholarship at Accademia di Belle Arti di Venetia, IT;

SOLO & DUO EXHIBITIONS

2025 – 48 Stunden Neukölln – Architectures of Healing – Galerie AC. Art & Dialogue, Berlin, DE. Curator: Ioana Mandeal (duo)
2023-2024 – Architectures of Healing, [Ceci n’est pas une] Gallery, Art space of Rumänisches Kulturinstitut, Berlin, DE. Curator: Ioana Mandeal. The project was developed during the Artist-in-Residence program at Urban Nation Museum and Stiftung Berliner Leben, Berlin, DE. (Duo)
2024 – Oana Maria Pop. Small details, not important, curated by Camilla Remondina, IAGA Contemporary Art, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
2019 – Dismayland, IAGA Contemporary Art, Cluj-Napoca
2015 – Mater familias, Casa Tiff, Cluj-Napoca, RO;
2014 – Eat – painting and contemporary terror, Flacara Factory, Cluj-Napoca, RO;

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2025 – 2026 – Arhiva de Sunet: AICI SE VEDE JAZZ, /SAC Berthelot, Bucharest, RO. Curators: Alex Radu, Paul Breeze, Mihai Lukács.
2025 – Arhiva de Sunet: Jazz in Brașov 70/80, Brașov Art Museum, Brașov, RO. Organiser: Dialectic Centre.
2025 – Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction, La Cave – Institute Français de Roumanie, Cluj-Napoca, RO. Curator: Liviu Bulea
2024 – Arhiva de Sunet: Jazz x Sibiu x Viață 70-80, Klub Kazališta Komedja – Kontesa, Zagreb, HR. Organiser: Dialectic Centre.
2024 – Arhiva de Sunet: Jazz x Sibiu x Viață 70-80, Casa Artelor, Timișoara, RO. Organiser: Dialectic Centre.
2024 – Arhiva de Sunet: Jazz x Sibiu x Viață 70-80, Cer Deschis Gallery, Sibiu, RO. Organiser: Dialectic Centre.
2024 – Fortune Cookies for the Future, Sibiu Contemporary Art Festival, National Museum Brukenthal, Sibiu, RO. Coordinators: Prof. univ. Dr. Ioan Sbârciu and Lect. univ. dr. Georgeta Olimpia Bera. Curator: Karina Ganea.
2024 – Good Girls Imaginarium, Centre for Philosophy and Art – 1001 Arte, Bucharest, RO. Curator: Cristian Cojanu.
2023 – 2024 – On Egoism, Flux I bell.place, Berlin, DE. Curator: Harm Lux.
2023 – Queermas, The Gay Creation, Berlin, DE. Curator: Liviu Bulea.
2023 – Linguistic Xpedition, Open House, Urban Nation, Berlin, DE. (Open House)
2023 – 2024 – Linguistic Xpedition, FRESH A.I.R. Scholarship Exhibition #8, Urban Nation Project Space Bülowstraße 97, Berlin, DE. Curator: Janine Arndt.
2023 – Linguistic Xpedition, Open House, Urban Nation, Berlin, DE.
2023 – Heartbeat 22, MNAC 2022 Art Acquisitions, Bucharest, RO. Contributor to The Book of Change project, developed by Georgiana Dobre & Kjersti Vetterstad.
2023 – Put it in Other Words, Center for Urban Culture, Cluj-Napoca, RO. Coordinators: Prof. univ. Dr. Ioan Sbârciu, Lect. univ. dr. Georgeta Olimpia Bera.
2022 – Karambol, Cosmic House, Cluj-Napoca, RO. Curator: Gilda Ghinoiu.
.2022 – Book of Change, Autumn Exhibition 2022, Association of Norwegian Visual Artists, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, NO. Contributor to The Book of Change project, developed by Georgiana Dobre & Kjersti Vetterstad.
2022 – Mapping Frames, The Museum of Art, Cluj-Napoca, RO. Curator: Lect. univ. dr. Georgeta Olimpia Bera. Coordinator: Prof. univ. Dr. Ioan Sbârciu.
2022 – DOT ~ TO ~ DOT, Intervention by TRIUMF AMIRIA, Museum of Queer Culture in LONG EYE*, Kunsthalle Bega, Timișoara, RO. Curator: KILOBASE BUCHAREST. Contributor to The Book of Change project, developed by Georgiana Dobre & Kjersti Vetterstad.
2022 – The Cokedown Effect, Booming Contemporary Art Show, Lieu.City, IT. Curator: ACME Art Lab.
2021 – 2022 – YOU FEEL ~ AND DRIFT ~ AND SING, Intervention by TRIUMF AMIRIA, Museum of Queer Culture, Combinatul Fondului Plastic, Bucharest, RO. Curator: KILOBASE BUCHAREST. Contributor to The Book of Change project, developed by Georgiana Dobre & Kjersti Vetterstad.
2021 – NO TO ABUSE AGAINST WOMEN, International Group Exhibition of Mail Art, Galateca Gallery, Bucharest, RO. Curators: Anca Boeriu, Andreea Sandu.
2021 – Memoria Tainuită a Locului, The Museum of Art, Cluj-Napoca, RO. Coordinators: Prof. univ. Dr. Ioan Sbârciu, Prof. univ. dr. Aurel Codoban, Lect. univ. dr. Georgeta Olimpia Bera.
2020 – Neo-Manifest Romantic, The Museum of Art, Cluj-Napoca, RO. Curator: Prof. univ. Dr. Ioan Sbârciu.
2018 – The Garden, Visual Kontakt Gallery, Cluj-Napoca, RO. Curator: Liviu Bulea.
2015 – Local Municipalities, part of the INTRUSION: Things Found Inside the Large Wooden Horse project, Visual Kontakt Gallery, Oradea, RO. Curator: dr. Olimpia Bera.

ART FAIRS

2023 – Art Athina, International Contemporary Art Fair, Athens, GR.
2023 – Mobu Art Bucharest, RO.
2023 – Cremona Art Fair, Cremona, IT.
2022 – Art Market Budapest, HU.
2021 – The Cokedown Effect, The Others Art Fair, Torino, IT. Curator: ACME Art Lab;
2021 – Art Fair Vilnius, Vilnius, LT.
2021 – Lucca Art Fair, Digital Art Fair, IT.
2020 – Budapest Art Market, Art Fair, Budapest, HU.
2019 – Budapest Art Market, Art Fair, Budapest, HU.
2018 – Art Thessaloniki International Contemporary Art Fair, Thessaloniki, GR.

RESIDENCIES

2023 – FRESH AIR at Urban Nation Museum and Stiftung Berliner Leben, Berlin, DE.

CONFERENCES

2025 – How Do Images and Objects Act? Potentialities and Virtualities of Research Through and About Art. “From Object to Objectification” Presentation at the Doctoral School Conference of Visual Arts, George Enescu National University of Arts, Iaşi, RO.
2024 – On Domestic Violence in Germany and Iran. A think piece by Judith Albrecht Public talk in dialogue with the installation Active/Passive, Architectures of Healing, Rumänische Kulturinstitut, Berlin, DE.

SCENOGRAPHY

2025 – RENT-A-FAMILY.SRL by Andreea Tănase, directed by Diana Dragoș, North Theatre, Satu-Mare, RO. (Set Design and Costume Design)
2024 – SLOTS by Ioana Sileanu, directed by Mihai Lukács, Tranzit House, Cluj-Napoca, RO. (Set Design and Costume Design)
2024 – YOU MAY DREAM by Izumi Suzuki, adapted by Alexa Băcanu, directed by Diana Dragoș, North Theatre, Satu-Mare, RO. (Set Design and Costume Design)

WORKSHOPS

2023 – Mural painting on community wall, Sandstraße 64, Berlin, DE. Organiser: Stiftung Berliner Leben. Coordinator: Xenia Müller. Partners: Kita Wonderblume.
2023 – Mural painting on community wall with the youth club B18 and neighbourhood children from Blasewitzer Ring 4, Heerstraße Nord, Berlin, DE. Organiser: Stiftung Berliner Leben. Coordinator: Xenia Müller.
2021 – 2022 – Drawing and Painting Workshops at The Centre for Prevention and Combating Domestic Violence in Cluj-Napoca, RO. Coordinator: Fărcaș Raluca.