The paintings by Simona Mihaela Stoia (b. 1982) are sensuous, mysterious, compact, open, intricate, and bold. In every work, she tries to find a balance between a pale, thinly applied background layer and a compilation of vigorous, seemingly clumsy, or very precise brush strokes that create pictorial space. At the same time, she tries to find another balance, namely between a finished and an unfinished appearance. And thirdly she is always in quest of new ways to transfigure figurative scenes into an interesting field of paint.

Her richly textured works evoke the landscapes of her childhood spent in the mountainous regions of Romania. Stoia's paintings, draw upon vivid and carefully constructed color palettes that immerse viewers in a world where forests, skies, and animals exist beyond the limitations of time.