Adrian Golban
Interstice
September 7 - 17, 2021
Gordon Snelgrove Gallery
Open to the public: Monday - Friday, 11:00am - 4:00pm
Interstice uses a range of found objects and materials and builds on the associations embedded in their physical presence and symbolic potential to reveal my trust and enthusiasm for the ways memory, my diasporic identity, and my current realities are being integrated in an evolving sculptural language. I am an artist from Romania who has lived in Canada for almost a decade. When I moved to Canada, I discovered new approaches to making art and determined that I wanted to complete an MFA degree here, looking to open more doors. One of the directions of contemporary art that interested me was a focus on signifiers of identity which I recognized as a suitable niche to combine my traditional skills in a contemporary milieu. This transition has posed many challenges and opportunities and I decided to assume the role of a visual actor, a player and freely jump from one idea to another to give me the satisfaction of the new and feed my curiosity about the unknown. For me, the MFA program has been a place where I could ask, Who Am I? and experiment with new ideas; it has been an artistic environment where mistakes were encouraged in order to find my own path. Interstice reveals that I am a multitude of experiences. It is a show of literal and metaphorical self-portraits that combine memories and experiences specific to my life in Romania with experiences in Canada. In creating this work, I rediscovered my own voice in a new place.
Image credit: Carey Shaw
Adrian Golban, Self (Re) Built from Scraps, 2021, sculpture, detail
Adrian Golban, The Vessel of Thoughts, 2021, sculpture, detail
Adrian Golban, The Mudbrick Relic, 2021, sculpture, detail
About the Artist
Adrian Golban was born in Dragalina, Romania in 1968. Adrian works predominantly in the medium of sculpture, but includes painting, photography, video installation and performance. Adrian graduated with a BFA in Sculpture from “Ioan Andreescu” Academy of Visual Arts in Romania, in 1997. He also graduated with a Master Degree in Educational Management in 2004. Between 1997 and 2012 Adrian held the position of classroom teacher at the “Aurel Popp” Arts High School in Satu-Mare, Romania. For five years he also held the position of High School Principal. His works were prominently exhibited in many places in Romania, as well as all across Europe, in countries such as Austria, Slovakia, Italy, Ukraine, Belgium, and Holland and were awarded numerous prizes and diplomas. Private collections with Adrian’s art can be found in Romania, Holland, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Slovakia, Ukraine, Malaysia, Philippines, and Canada. Currently, Adrian is a candidate in the MFA program at University of Saskatchewan, Canada.
