About
Ioana Aron is a Romanian visual artist who lives and works betwwen Paris, New York, and Bucharest, recognized internationally for her work, which has been exhibited in major museums. Supported by several study grants, she has lived and studied in multiple countries, each experience enriching her practice. In 2024, she completed her PhD at the National University of Arts in Bucharest, focusing on the relationship between text and image in the media environment.
Since 2020, she has been co-founder and editor-in-chief of E T A J magazine, a Romanian publication entirely run by artists. That year also saw the publication of her first monograph, The Field. IL Y A, by Triade Art Foundation, now in the National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC) collection. She has contributed to 5 Artists Interviews: The Open Call #2 and the collective book Love & Politics (Freigeist, 2018).
She received the Brâncuși Grant in 2019, enabling a residency at Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris. Between 2021–2022, she held a doctoral residency at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Technology, Brno. In 2022, she received a monthly grant from the Juxta Foundation and won the Mother/Artist exhibition prize.
Fragments of her installation Dans Ma Rue were shown at MNAC during the 2022 National Salon of Contemporary Art and later in Towards a Shared Vision at Centrul de Interes, Cluj (2023), receiving the Intact Cultural Foundation award in 2024. In 2023, she participated in key group exhibitions, including Neo Art Connect at Rezidența 9, Young Blood 2.0 at Art Safari, Tower of Strength at WASP Gallery, and SCAF 2023 at Brukenthal National Museum. She also presented three solo shows: Cave of Forgotten Dreams at MNTRplusC, A House, A Home at 2META Museum, and Our Dirty Bedroom at Atelierele Scânteia (in collaboration with Brice Aparicio).
In 2024, she completed international residencies at Arthaus, Havana; Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris; and the European Artistic Program (Barcelona–Paris). She received the Culture Moves Europe grant from the Goethe Institute for Dans Ma Rue and participated in major group exhibitions, including the Tonitza Biennale, and Art Safari, Bucharest. In 2025 Aron presented three solo exhibitions in Paris, most recently Ce qui nous relie, and one in New York, Our Dirty Bedroom: Echoes of the Everyday.
Ioana Aron’s work continues to shape contemporary art with a distinctive approach blending intellectual inquiry and visual experimentation.
Contact Details
ioana.niculescu.aron@gmail.com
Horia Macelariu 26, Bucharest, Romania
+40 722 657 999
Professional Experience
Editor-in-chief of E T A J, Romania’s first artist-run publication
- present
Graphic concept lead for E T A J
- present
Education
Ph.D. in Visual Arts
The National University of Arts
Bucharest, Romania
MA in Creative Strategies in Painting
The National University of Arts
Bucharest, Romania
BA in Fine Arts (Painting)
The National University of Arts
Bucharest, Romania
International Studies & Residencies
Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris
Arthaus Residency, Havana
European Artistic Program (Barcelona–Paris)
FAVu, Brno, Czech Republic
Studio residency with Alina Buga, Regensburg, Germany
Haute École des Arts du Rhin, Mulhouse, France
Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan, Italy
Selected Exhibitions
Awards & Grants
Paired Commission Grant
Culture Moves Europe, Goethe-Institut
Iulius Mall Prize, Intact Foundation
Exhibition Prize, Juxta Foundation
Brâncuși Grant, Romanian Cultural Institute
Erasmus+, FAVU Brno
Prague Residency, TIMPUL culture magazine
Publications
Illustrator: Insurecții / Incantații by Magda Cârneci
The Field. IL Y A, monograph, Triade Foundation
Artist interviews (Kim Egnelen)
Contributor to Love & Politics (Freigeist)
Our Dirty Dishes
Satellite Art Gallery, New York,
A Body in Cultural Transit
TAV, Paris,
Ce qui nous relie
La Galerie des Artistes, Paris,
We Are Here
WASP, Bucharest,
Our Dirty Bedroom, collab. with Brice Aparicio
Atelierele Scânteia, Bucharest,
A House, A Home
2Meta Museum, Slon,
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
MNTRplusC, Bucharest,
Confession
ETAJ artist-run space, Bucharest,
Transversal
1001 Arte Gallery, Bucharest,
Notes of a Painter
Europe Gallery, Brasov,
IELE 2
Sun Plaza Atrium, Bucharest,
3D HOTEL (The Third)
Alina Buga Art Studio, Regensburg,
IELE
The Art of Living Gallery, Bucharest,
November
Romanian Cultural Institute, New York,
Equilibrium
Artifact Gallery, New York,
MEREU: 8 Rue Seveste, 75018 Paris
Europe Gallery, Brasov,
MEREU: 8 Rue Seveste, 75018 Paris
Go Contemporary Gallery, Bucharest,
Solo Exhibitions
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Almost, But Not Quite the World
ETAJ artist-run spaces,
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Persona
Mona Bismarck Hotel, Paris,
-
Catalizator de începuturi
Arcub, Bucharest,
-
5th edition of the International Contemporary Art Biennial N. Tonitza
Bârlad,
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We Lived Good Lives
DWMT Festival, Conacul Udriște Năsturel,
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Young Blood 3
Art Safari, Bucharest,
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La Traversée
La Supérette du Quotidien, Paris,
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All around the gate
Etaj artist-run space, Quipo Art Fair, Mexico City,
-
Doctoral Research Exhibition
UNAgaleria, Bucharest,
-
Towards a Shared Vision
Centrul de Interes, Cluj,
-
Tower of Strength
WASP Gallery, Bucharest,
-
Sibiu Contemporary Art Festival
Brukenthal Museum, Sibiu,
-
Neo Art Connect
BRD Rezidenta 9, Bucharest,
-
Young Blood 2.0
Art Safari, Bucharest,
-
SNAC
The National Museum of Contemporary Art (MANC), Bucharest,
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Doctoral research exhibition
UNAgaleria, Bucharest,
-
Art Safari
Superheroes/Antiheroes, Bucharest,
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Art in Progress
The Institute, Bucharest,
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Ne cheamă lele. E un cuvânt fără singular
Manasia Hub, Bucharest,
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Book as Revolution
European International Book Art Biennale, Carei,
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Museum of Broken Relationships
Scena9, Bucharest,
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Remembering Rembrandt
1001 Arte Gallery, Bucharest,
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From Painting to Life
Chaosoms Art Space, Athens,
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Laborna & Friends
Laborna Gallery, Bucharest,
-
Artrooms Fair
Melia White House, London,
-
Squares
CICA Museum, Seoul,
-
Present Perfect Continuous
Zverev Contemporary Art Centre, Moscow,
-
Cold Cases
Old Police Cells Museum, Brighton,
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Measures
The Art Vacancy Gallery, New York City,
-
Bosom Bodies: An Exhibition in Honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month
SIA Gallery, Peekskill (NY),
-
New Artists
ARCUB Gallery, Bucharest,
-
Help Hope Nepal Mural
Contemporary Art Projects USA, SPECTRUM Miami, Booth 315, Miami,
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ABSTRACT
Zero Gallery, Barcelona,
-
Dream Art - Salvador Dali' Museum
Berlin,
-
International Contemporary Art
Centrale ENEL Taccani, Trezzo sull'Adda, Milan,
-
Peoples
Sebastopol Centre for the Arts, Galleria Il, California,
-
Does the power seduce the soul?!
City Business Centre, Building C, Timisoara,
Group Exhibitions
Collections
JUXTFoundation
Bucharest, Romania
Fortunescu Collection
Bucharest, Romania
Bertrand Klein Collection
Mulhouse, France
Jacques Deguille Collection
Mulhouse, France
Beth Campbell Collection
Miami, USA
The Museum of The National University of Arts Collection
Bucharest, Romania
Selected Articles and Interviews
Timpul Magazine
Illustrated with the artworks of loana Aron, text by the art historian Magda Carneci
Timpul Online Magazine
Article written by the curator Mălina Lonescu
Article written by Alexandra Nistoroiu about loana Aron's solo exhibition, Confession
Vice magazine
Interview by Ruxandra Maian
Observatorul Cultural nr. 1069,7
Interview
Not Random Art nr. 08
Interview
References
The project titled Dans Ma Rue that loana Aron develops is a complex artistic process that becomes gradually a site-specific art place. The artist researches, in a feminist key, issues related to emigration, multiculturalism, gender, and the presence of the female artist in the cultural destiny of a center of European / Universal culture, Paris. Her works of painting, drawing, object, and video live in a coherently thought architecture, and capture, holistically, and poetically, with a lot of plastic virtuosity, accompanied by artistic maturity, existential, inner/outer cityscape, an etat d'ame of the city.
In her ambitious installation project, Dans Ma Rue, Ms. Aron invites us to consider just that - which Paris belongs to which immigrants whose Parisian experience became their homes, and ineluctably influenced their art, their lives, and their place in art history. She has focused on only immigrant women artists, as she too is a woman artist shaped by her Parisian sojourns, short and long. In essence, she hopes we can appreciate the sense of community that develops as the artist finds friends and establishes Parisian bonds. These localized environments characterize a specificity that becomes the Paris of one's consciousness, the Paris that germinates and develops from within.
What I found interesting in her approach is the fact that, without completely renouncing the figurative, she incorporates it in tense abstract structures, where the collage with elements apparently taken from outwardly, refers to an unfettered and courageous self. introspection. Her works are a kind of assemblage of various techniques, which work together to give the impression of an assumed drama honest and intelligently displayed. Besides, loana Aron is also an interesting writer of a journal, in which the research of one's own psyche and the exploration of its formulation is as close as possible to the real intensity and as expressive as possible manifests an impressive self-search for a man young man.
When talking about loana Aron's persona, the first thing to notice is her young age, seen in contraposition with her utterly long resumé. She started as a prodigy and, during her university years, she was constantly traveling, exploring, visiting schools and studios. Her unsettled spirit and nomadic character make her art complicated, and aerial, yet unfinished.
She uses herself in relation to daily experiences, trying to absorb everything that makes her senses vibrate. Sometimes, from too much enthusiasm, she blends everything in the same pot, making the discourse hard to decipher. Nevertheless, she delivers a lot - paintings, drawings, objects, installations, collages, letters, videos, and poetry. Her gaze towards the others is surprised and innocent, even when she explores mature sides of womanliness, sexuality, or light psychoanalysis. She drives her ideas towards a romantic duality, transcribed in common keywords, such as the Good and the Bad, the Fairy and the Slut, the Seen and the Unseen, etc.
Paintings of the artist loana Aron reveal her great interest in the connection between art and society in rare creativity and in fascinating artistic combinations of clarity with abstract areas that blur places or identities. Ioana Aron enlists her passion, professionalism, and experience through palette of colours and black and white that are translated into stains and lines that create tension and interactions between them. Her works are original and mesmerize the viewer because they manage to convey emotion and interest.