Essays

Essays on art, series, documentation, memory and artistic practice by Romanian contemporary painter Adrian Dică.

Adrian Dică’s SEEDS installation in the courtyard of Cantacuzino Palace, with paintings placed at ground level and a green spade, Bucharest, 2026

Essays·8 September 2026

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?

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.