Serban Savu

"New Road"  oil on canvas  30x40cm  2011

"Spring Cleaning"  oil on canvas  97x135cm  2010

"Iara Valley"  oil on canvas  87x120cm  2011

"The Tunnel"

untitled

I've said before that usually I like to post artists that are promoting their own work. Usually that means they have their own website, and usually that means they are still trying to break into the big time (whatever that is). Serban Savu appears to be a pretty well established artist from Romania whose work shows not only there but also at well respected galleries in both New York and Los Angeles. I just wanted to share because I immediately fell in love with their spare simplicity. They have that same kind of workman-like and deceptively unglamorous brushwork you see in Edward Hopper. I think the comparison is an apt one beyond that as well. Like Hopper, Savu uses very careful compositions and lighting effects to create a powerful melancholic mood around ordinary people in the midst of their daily lives. Edward Hopper's world was the early and mid 20th century in America. Savu's is contemporary eastern Europe. Somehow those two worlds don't seem all that far apart.

You can see more of his work at the following gallery websites. Each has quite a few paintings to look through:
www.plan-b.ro
www.davidnolangallery.com
nicodimgallery.com