Catalogue of the solo show Cătălin Bălescu. Proiecții manieriste / Mannerist Projections, organized at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest.
“Like the mannerist artist, Cătălin Bălescu is also fascinated by the reality of transformation. His paintings can be identified with real “spaces of metamorphosis”, and their magmatic aspect only reinforces such a critical opinion, or rather certainty, adorned with the signs of firmness. The current exhibition at MNAC proves that between historical and contemporary, postmodern mannerism, a space of amenity seems to be gaining a definitive consecration. The paintings Cătălin Bălescu presents to our attention draw their beauty and sap, but also their spiritual legitimacy from historical mannerism, to which they are linked by countless invisible threads, all held together in the painter’s skilful orchestrator’s hands.” Cristian-Robert Velescu