ALEXANDRU SCHIOPU

My artistic practice has developed alongside a long career in graphic design. Trained in drawing, calligraphy, printmaking and photography, I began exhibiting posters and graphic works in the late 1980s. Over time, graphic design became the dominant part of my work, increasingly shaped by digital tools and processes.

After many years spent predominantly in the digital environment, I felt a growing need to return to the physical experience of making: paper, ink, wood, texture, and the direct contact between hand and material.

This return to materiality now takes several forms.

In calligraphy, I am drawn to the simplicity and concentration of the gesture — the firmness of the stroke, the texture of paper, the flow of ink and its natural imperfections. There is no Ctrl+Z: the trace of the hand remains.

Photobjects bring together digital printing and manual intervention, allowing the photograph to move beyond the flat image towards something tactile, somewhere between image and object.

Papier-mâché takes this relationship with material further. Paper is no longer simply a surface carrying an image or a written mark; it becomes the substance from which a new object is made.

Curiosity, experimentation and the pleasure of making connect these different practices through material, gesture and transformation.