The first exhibition in 104GALERIE’s new home is “Listen How the Horns are Growing”, a solo exhibition by Teodora Axente. From August 18th to September 11th 2021, we will be showing medium and large canvas works, and small paintings, 10 pieces in total. This is the first exhibition in Asia for the artist, who is based in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

The second-biggest city in Romania, Cluj-Napoca has produced many celebrated artists in recent history, such as Adrian Ghenie, Victor Man and Ciprian Muresan, known collectively as the ‘Cluj-School’. Within the next generation, positioned as their successors, Axente is one of the artists representing the Cluj-School of today.


Axente has always worked in the territories of real and imaginary worlds, and on the dualism of the material and the spiritual.
In her earlier paintings, Axente worked from photographs for which she created costumes and designed the space. Her work, set against a simple background, depicted models wearing shiny costumes made of tin foil, fur, laces and satin, creating a contemporary impression with a connection to fashion. Recently, she has shifted more towards using classical Western portraits as a reference, and reconstructs elements that appear in historical, religious and mythical contexts in digital collage, before painting it on canvas.

In the exhibited work, the deer is depicted as a symbol of regeneration, as its horns are replaced with new growth. In the person whose body is merged with a deer, and in the space shared by people and deer, she expresses the sacred presence and complex inner state of humans.


“I am talking about the man who camouflages his moods and feelings through some aesthetic clothing artifices in the case of the characters in my paintings or the sumptuous rooms or crowded with objects. My characters are vulnerable in open frames. Landscapes, nature, water like a mirror reflect the man in it and seem to reveal him and put him in the middle of the scene.”
- Teodora Axente

The work of Teodora Axente, who attempts to grasp the territory of consciousness through metaphor and story, draws the audience into her fantastic work instantly. We hope that you enjoy the exhibition.