March 1 – 29, 2021
Tibi Chelcea was trained as an electronics engineer in Romania (his place of birth) and came to the US to continue his studies. In his art, Chelcea is interested in using non-traditional printmaking techniques, such as capturing motion by printing with one’s feet, and materials, such as using circuit boards extracted from electronics as the print matrix. The background of the flag actually comes from several large collages of such printed boards, arranged in the shape and colors of the Romanian flag. “Footprints” is an indication of how his background continues to inform his art, as the flag is both an allusion to his emigration to the US as well as to the technical name for an electronic component’s pattern (footprint) which determines how the component is attached to a circuit board.
Tibi Chelcea takes elements and processes of traditional art disciplines, such as printmaking and drawing, and combines them with parts and operations of digital technologies. His work demonstrates unexpected correlations between old and new technologies, and issues of consumption, serial design, automated vs labor-intensive processes, are brought to the fore. His works have been exhibited throughout the United States (New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Iowa, and other states) as well as Mexico, Egypt and Brazil, and has received a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant and an Iowa Artist Fellowship. He was born in Romania and came to the United States to pursue a PhD in Computer Science. He has received several awards, fellowships, and patents in the field of electronic and digital design, which continues to be a major source of inspiration for his art.
