Studio Notes

Essays, curatorial texts, exhibition records and notes from the studio.

I Need a Spade

A text about SEEDS, about painting leaving the wall and being brought down to ground level, and about the question that has accompanied the series for ten years: what changes when we alter the place from which we look at painting?

ALL ARTICLES

Head cast in translucent resin with a wire crown of thorns, in progress in the studio — Metha-Lan, Adrian Dică, 2014

Essays·August 7, 2026

Tick the Box That Says You're Not a Robot

Trust is shifting from the text to the authority that guarantees it — in art as in AI. Adrian Dică argues that the authority of an artwork rests on lived testimony about the creative act, and names the institutional risk "authority laundering".

Plastica mică — Adrian Dică, small-format work on canvas in pale pink, yellow and light blue, a diffuse pink figure over a warm field

Essays·August 3, 2026

Bohemia Never Dies, It Just Self-Preserves

Bohemia does not disappear: it self-preserves by strategically retreating from the market into slow time, the unfinished work and the uncalculated gesture. Adrian Dică traces the mechanism from the cave to the algorithm, via Bourdieu and Warhol.

Head of Jesus with a wire crown of thorns and hands cast in translucent resin, diagonally mounted on a wall — Metha-Lan, AnnArt Gallery, 2014

Essays·July 21, 2026

What Trust in an AI Answer and the Authority of an Artwork Have in Common

In a culture where texts can be generated instantly, authority is shifting from content toward source, context, and network. Adrian Dică traces this movement across artificial intelligence, artistic provenance, and the role of art.

Four blank canvases mounted on a studio wall, sunlight cutting diagonally across them, with the words "Series Over Single Works" overlaid — the visual motif for this essay by Adrian Dică on painting in series

Essays·July 13, 2026

Series Over Single Works: A Painter's Case for Process

Romanian painter Adrian Dică on why series-based practice — from his graduation series to PREAPOCALIPTIC and Seeds — builds clarity, consistency and depth in painting research.

A softly lit gallery interior with a large green abstract painting on the left wall and a smaller framed work visible through an open doorway, overlaid with the essay title "Every Work Deserves Its Own Archive"

Essays·July 11, 2026

Every Work Deserves Its Own Archive

A short essay on why documentation — website, catalogue, digital archive — has become part of the artistic practice itself, not an administrative afterthought.

National Garbage, painting by Adrian Dică, mixed media on canvas, 150 × 93 cm, from the Urban Puzzle series (2014) — an old pickup truck loaded with overflowing rubbish, painted in muted greys and ochre

Studio·July 2026

Urban Puzzle (2014): The Bachelor Project That Shaped My Artistic Research

A retrospective look at Urban Puzzle, my Bachelor project completed at the National University of Arts Bucharest. Awarded the Faculty of Painting Excellence Award, the project marked the beginning of my long-term artistic research into memory, urban landscapes and the traces of human activity.

Installation view inside a gallery at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, showing Adrian Dică's abstract landscape painting hung among works by other selected artists during the Summer Exhibition 2024, with visitors viewing the display

Exhibitions·June 2026

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2024 – A Milestone in My Artistic Journey

A first-hand account of exhibiting at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2024, from the selection process and artwork delivery to the Private View and the sale of my painting for £6,000.

A postcard-sized abstract painting from Adrian Dică's Seeds series, framed in yellow and displayed in a still-life composition, prepared for the Art on a Postcard 2024 charity auction

Exhibitions·June 2026

Art on a Postcard 2024 – My Experience at the 10th Anniversary Charity Auction

Following my participation in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2024, I was invited by Gemma Peppé to contribute to the 10th Anniversary Art on a Postcard charity auction. Both paintings from my Seeds series were exhibited at Gathering London and successfully sold during the auction.

Interior of Chelsea Old Town Hall during the London Art Biennale 2023, with Adrian Dică's paintings displayed on temporary gallery walls beneath the historic vaulted ceiling, as visitors move through the exhibition

Exhibitions·May 2026

London Art Biennale 2023 — My Experience as a Selected Artist

A first-hand account of exhibiting at the London Art Biennale 2023, from the international open call and selection process to exhibiting at Chelsea Old Town Hall in London.

Installation view of Undeniable Illusion of Pink — Arthalle Gallery, Bucharest, October 2019

Criticism·October 2019

Undeniable Illusion of Pink — curatorial text by Diana Andrei

Curatorial text by Diana Andrei for painter Adrian Dică's solo exhibition "Undeniable Illusion of Pink," Arthalle Gallery, Bucharest, October 2019.