Artist Spotlight: Andra Victoria Popescu (PAV)
“An artist’s works come from who she is.”
Introduction
For Andra Victoria Popescu — known simply as PAV — art is not just creation; it is a form of confession, even catharsis. Her paintings unfold as visual diaries, each colour and form an attempt to understand herself, her relationships, and the emotional currents of her life.
Though she only began painting in university, PAV’s rise has been strikingly swift. Selected as the only student from her university to exhibit in the prestigious Graduate Curated show at the Museum of Recent Art (MARe) in 2024, she recalls the experience as “a huge shock — seeing people crowd around my works felt unreal.”
Since then, her presence at Art Safari and the DIPLOMA Show has positioned her among Romania’s most promising new voices — an artist whose vulnerability and precision mark her as one to watch.
Building Herself as an Artist
At the core of PAV’s vision lies a desire to build a brand — not commercially, but conceptually.
“I want my work to exist as an ecosystem. My art, my ideas, the way I use colour — they should all connect back to who I am.”
Girl With Pink Ribbon, collage on paper, executed in 2023. Image Courtesy: PAV.
Her canvases bring together fractured forms, vivid hues, and layered emotion, what she calls “emotional fissures.” Through these, she examines her life, her relationships, and her self-understanding.
“The more chaotic my paintings are,” she notes, “the truer they feel. The colours come from clarity — from finally understanding what’s going on inside me.”
Family, Chaos, and Colour
Family plays a central role in PAV’s work — both as subject and as emotional anchor. In her paintings, her parents are often the only figures rendered in colour.
“My parents don’t understand what I do, yet I paint them [laughs]. They’ve always supported me, even if they couldn’t always see what I see.”
A Happy Home, oil on canvas, 100 x 100 cm, executed in 2024. Image Courtesy: PAV.
Moments of personal crisis have inspired some of her most accomplished works. Painting, for her, is an act of acceptance — a way to make sense of what life brings.
Across Mediums: From Collage to Canvas
Before oil painting, there was collage. For PAV, collage is more than a medium; it’s a philosophy. “Collage brings things together — people, ideas, fragments of time. Even when I paint, I feel like I’m collaging realities.”
Her transition to oil on canvas came from a need for structure. “Once the multiplicities of collage came together,” she reflects, “I needed something solid to hold them.”
Mentors, Music, and “Colouring In” Her Emotions
Artistic growth, PAV says, is never solitary. She credits Emilia Kiss and Sebastian Pantea, her mentors since she was 13, with shaping her artistic discipline. From George Moscal, she inherited her bold approach to colour — “he taught me that emotion can dictate chroma.”
Music also runs through her practice. “Music helps us understand ourselves, just like a poet teaches us how we feel by telling us how they feel” she says. “When I paint, I’m searching for that same rhythm — that emotional tempo.”
Rewriting Art History: A New Aesthetic
Beyond her studio, PAV’s intellectual curiosity pushes her toward new frontiers. She is preparing a PhD in aesthetic spiritualism, exploring the ideas and practice of Hilma af Klint and early Swedish abstraction.
“Hilma af Klint’s work carries an abstract, spiritual weight that predates Kandinsky. It’s time to rewrite that story.”
Hilma af Klint, Group X, No. 1, Altarpiece, oil on canvas, 237,5 x 179,5 cm, executed in 1915. Image Courtesy: Guggenheim Museum, New York.
Her thesis argues that abstract art began with Hilma af Klint, not Kandinsky — an argument that could reshape how we understand modern art’s origins.
For her, this research is another form of self-discovery — a continuation of the same introspection that drives her visual work.
Looking Ahead
When it comes to galleries or representation, PAV prioritizes flexibility over exclusivity. “If the relationship is right, I’m open [PAV says]. But at this stage, I want the freedom to explore.”
She Is Just Like Me?, collage on paper, 70 x 70 cm, executed in 2025. Image Courtesy: PAV.
Her plans include continuing to expand her mediums and refine her visual identity — the ongoing creation of what she calls “the world of PAV.”
A New Voice in Romanian Art
PAV’s artistic journey embodies the essence of Opera Art Advisory & Collective’s mission: to support emerging talent, encourage dialogue between artists and collectors, and foster a new generation of art that is as honest as it is daring.
Her story — a blend of reflection, colour, and courage — stands as a reminder that art’s most powerful starting point is often the self.
A Happy Ending, collage on paper, 70 x 70 cm, executed in 2023. Image Courtesy: PAV.
To learn more about available works signed by Andra Victoria Popescu (PAV), contact info@operaadvisory.com or operaartadvisory.com.
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