Maria Dobrican

My artistic research stems from subtraction, from the desire to leave space for silence, light, and what often remains invisible. Through painting, matter, and contemplative photography, I explore the fragile boundary between presence and absence. My works thrive on the balance between emptiness and matter, light and shadow, gesture and suspension. I am drawn to everything that bears the marks of time and imperfection: worn jute, raw paper, pigments, chalk, water, fibers, and weathered surfaces. I use them not as decorative elements, but as emotional traces and silent memories.
The minimalism I pursue is neither cold nor geometric, but contemplative and material, influenced by wabi-sabi aesthetics and Eastern sensibilities, and encapsulated in my Sostanza Sottile series. The "unfinished" is a fundamental part of my artistic language: I'm interested in suggesting rather than explaining, leaving the viewer the space to emotionally complete what isn't fully revealed.