Vlad Nancă (b. 1979, Bucharest) studied at the Department of Photography and Moving Image at the National University of Arts, Bucharest. His early work marked a fresh artistic perspective by employing DIY methods of production and self organisation and also helped bring together the young artist community in Bucharest. Projects such as: “Home Gallery” (2003 – 2004) which hosted exhibitions by Ioana Nemes, Mona Vătămanu and Florin Tudor, Janek Simon, etc, the “începem” emailing list and fanzine (2003 – 2013), “Școala Generală” – a free university type of institution (2008 – 2009), the 2020.ro online platform, stood as collective actions to generate long-term ramifications and critical debate by connecting already existing alternative artistic clusters in Bucharest and Romania.

In his early works, Vlad Nancă uses political and cultural symbols to explore nostalgia and the changes in society, set against the backdrop of Romania and Eastern Europe’s recent history and the rise of aggressive capitalism in the early 2000s. Works such as “Original Adidas” (2003), “I don’t know what Union I want to belong to anymore” (2003), and “Proposal for the National Redemption Cathedral” (2004) stand as iconic representations of his artistic period, serving as significant markers of his creative journey during that time.

In his recent work, Nancă explores space in various forms, from public space and architecture to outer space, consistently utilising archival material and references from art and architectural history to create unique subject matter materialising in sculptures and installations. His exhibitions “From the White Square to the White Cube” (Alert Studio, 2015) and “Vis a Vis” (Suprainfinit Gallery, 2019) imagined an intersection between the socialist utopia as depicted in the works of radical Italian architects Superstudio and the reality of socialist Romania during the 1980s.

A similar retrospective approach applied within a hypothetical context was highlighted in “Souvenirs from Earth” (Calina Gallery, 2015), an exhibition that posed the question, “What would you take with you on a translocation to a 2.0 planet?” Nancă speculated on the potential colonisation of Kepler 452b—a planet with atmospheric conditions akin to those of Earth—and pondered the cultural heritage one might carry to a fictitious relocation beyond our galaxy. “In the Natural Landscape the Human is an Intruder” (Sabot Gallery, 2018), marks an ever-growing interest towards architecture and architectural drawing. Ensuing personal exhibitions “The City and the City” (Kunstverein Ost, 2009), “Vis a vis” (Suprainfinit gallery, 2019), “A Map of the World as Seen by Him” (Institute of Contemporary Art Sofia, 2022), and more recently “Corps Orbite” (Grotto Gallery, 2024), all reflect a retrospective exploration of 20th-century modernism. Through this lens, they envision potential futures and solutions for the current global circumstances.