Mircea
Cantor

Mircea Cantor, born in 1977 (Oradea, Romania), is an artist who, in his own terms, prefers to refer to himself as an Earthling. His multidisciplinary practice is first and foremost to be understood as a quest for visual poetry, meditation and spirituality. Inspired by the large and small events of everyday life, and through ingenious plays with rhythm, repetition, symmetry and touch, Cantor succeeds in creating strong poetic images which have the capacity to linger in the mind. Combined together, his works allow us to think about the freedom of our movements, the ideas of borders and limits, and the courageous but sometimes audacious attempts to sublimate or subvert.

A the beginning of the 2000s, he drew attention to himself with the film The Landscape is Changing (2003) in which were shown several demonstrators brandishing mirrors in lieu of slogans. His choice of media is however quite diverse, using video, sculpture, installation, graphical design – he created the graphical charter for the Frac Pays de la Loire, a regional collection in France – and more recently, he dabbled in set design for the theatrical production of the Petit Prince [The Little Prince] by Alexandru Dabija at the Teatrul de Comedie in Bucarest (2017). For the anniversary season of the Opéra de Paris, Mircea Cantor was also invited in 2018 to produce drawings for the performances’ programmes. 

His artworks have, since then, been integrated into many famous international collections such as the MoMA (New York, USA), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, USA), Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphie, USA), Musée National d’Art Moderne – Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), Museum Abteiberg (Mönchengladbach, Germany), Museo National Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid, Spain), Kunsthaus (Zurich, Switzerland), Collection Pinault (Paris, France) or Fondation Louis Vuitton (Paris, France). 

Amongst his most recent solo shows are the exhibition produced at the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature on the occasion of the France-Romania Season in Paris (2019) and those at the Musée d’Arts de Nantes (2019), Fondation d’Entreprise Hermès in Tokyo (2018), Fondazione Giuliani in Rome (2017), Fondation Francès in Senlis (2016), Dvir Gallery in Tel Aviv (2016), Art Basel (2015), Magazzino gallery in Rome (2014), Musée National d’Art Moderne – Centre Pompidou (2013). 

He is currently represented by VNH Gallery (Paris), Magazzino (Rome) and the Dvir Gallery. (Tel Aviv-Brussels).