Tahira Noreen is an Islamabad-based artist whose sculptural wasli paper works explore memory, mapping, and the quiet movement of time. Drawing from Minimalism, cartography, and personal history, her practice transforms traditional South Asian materials into contemporary conceptual forms. In this Opera Artist Spotlight, we trace her journey through international exhibitions, meticulous process, and the philosophy guiding her exploration of light, landscape, and emotional geography.

An in-depth profile of painter Raluca-Ioana Drăghici, whose symbolic, near-symmetrical compositions explore harmony, perception, and the quiet tension between abstraction and figuration. Discover her process, influences, recent exhibitions, and her collaboration with Opera Art Advisory & Collective.

Pakistani-born sculptor Kishwar Kiani — winner of the 2024 Gilbert Bayes Award — creates metal works that balance structure and fragility, drawing on her lived experience between Pakistan and the UK. Her recurring scaffolding forms act as personal architecture, exploring permanence, risk, and the quiet tension between order and uncertainty. Rooted in persistence and shaped by cross-continental exchange, Kiani’s practice continues to evolve through conversation, experimentation, and an unwavering commitment to material.

For Andra Victoria Popescu — known as PAV — art is both confession and self-discovery. Her vivid, emotionally charged paintings reflect her search for meaning, family, and balance between chaos and clarity. From collage to oil, from emotion to intellect, PAV’s practice bridges colour and philosophy, culminating in a vision that is as personal as it is universal.

“People think that paper is used for crafts, but when they come to my studio, they see that it can also make art” says Alexandra Baranyi in her interview with Opera’s Virgil Munteanu. With a practice rooted in patience and precision and working primarily with hand-processed paper and mixed media, her works explore the intersection between material fragility and emotional endurance — tracing themes of memory, trauma, the body, and poetic absence.

Between matter and memory, Maria Langu finds the trace of the human condition. Opera’s Virgil Munteanu spoke with the young sculptor about her evolving practice and the new generation shaping Romanian contemporary art.

“I’m too young to paint Abstract,” says Radu Pandele, one of the most distinctive voices in Romania’s new generation of contemporary painters. In conversation with Opera’s Lead Advisor, Virgil Munteanu, Pandele reflects on philosophy, process, and the pursuit of artistic completeness.