At first glance, one might perceive Alexandra Mocanu‘s broad brushstrokes as mere brazen, single gesture applications of paint. But on closer inspection, these expansive pieces reveal themselves as woven tapestries; interpretative impressions of gouache croquis, the French Romanian-born artist paints as prompts for the highly complex works she eventually creates. Rather than boasting themselves as loud, one-note assertions of skill or trompe l’oeil gimmicks—a trend far too prevalent these days—the intricate tapestries satisfy the haptic and visceral desires of an image-saturated, art-savvy audience.
Alexandra Mocanu weaves tapestries like paintings
November 27, 2019
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FEATURED & RELATED ARTWORKS
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FEATURED ARTIST
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Alexandra Mocanu
Raised by a textile artist mother and furniture designer father, Bucharest-born French Romanian artist Alexandra Mocanu grew up immersed in the world of handcrafted arts. Surrounded by the tools and materials of her parents’ workshop, Mocanu began to discover her own artistic perspective, first through photography, then painting and tapestry. She arrived at her chosen materials by instinct, exploring the contrasts between the immediacy of painterly gesture and the constraints of realism. She currently works out of her studio in Pantin, France. Imprinted with the rhythms of spontaneous gestures, Mocanu’s potent wall tapestry works are made of wool woven on canvas, with lines and colors meticulously threaded so as to appear at first glance to be painted in a single bold stroke. Her pieces begin as paintings in gouache, which are then painstakingly spun upon a loom into a tapestry. The expressive quality of Mocanu’s work belies her considered approach, in which a decisive brushstroke is slowed down into a time bending illusion woven with countless threads. At times spontaneous, other times more intentional, Mocanu’s abstract compositions assert a gap in the verisimilitude of mark making. Mocanu was given the contemporary design award for her work shown at PAD Paris in 2018, which was called “colorful, luminous, and original” by PAD Paris Jury President Marie-Laure Jousset, speaking to Le Quotidien de l’Art. “Tapisseries,” Mocanu’s debut New York exhibition at Twenty First Gallery, received coverage from Architectural Digest, Surface, AN Interior, Brown Harris Stevens, and Cover.
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