Felix Aftene

Felix Aftene, the visual artist, lives and works in Iași but his art career expands on both international and national contemporary art scenes. He masters various art forms, thus tackling painting, sculpture, mural painting or new media. He was the valedictorian of the 1996 Mural Painting class (tutored by Professor Dimitrie Gavrilean). In 2016 he obtained his doctorate in Visual Arts from the “George Enescu” National University of Arts, Iași, with a dissertation on contemporary visual arts. In 1997 he became a member of the Romanian Visual Artists’ Union and since 2013 he has been the president of its Iași Branch. Since 1998 he has worked as a scenic designer for the Iași regional studio of the Romanian Television Society. Between 1997 and 1998 he was awarded the Romanian Visual Artists’ Union scholarship. In 1998 he won the competition for creating the mural inside the General Directorate of Public Finance from Iași with a project called Babylon. In 2008 he created another landmark for the local community – The Time Capsule – a bronze monument placed in front of the Iași City Hall to celebrate 600 years since the city was first mentioned officially. In 2016 he was awarded the Romanian Visual Artists’ Union Prize for Painting. In 2019 he made a comeback to the public space with a project named Memory Table. Placed near the former summer kitchen of Ion Creangă’s cottage, the work celebrates 100 years since the first literature museum was established in Romania. In 2020, in the city centre of his birth town, Vaslui, he displayed Chronos, a bronze sculpture. He has been awarded more than 30 prizes and distinctions for his national and international art career. He has been a curator, coordinator and exhibitor in numerous (around 200) group and personal exhibitions both in Romania and abroad. As a painter, he is one of the most prolific Romanian contemporary artists, with more than 30 personal exhibitions in museums or international art galleries. His works are exhibited in museums and private art collections from Romania and abroad (Austria, the USA, the UK, Greece, Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, Canada, Denmark, Hungary, Israel and The Republic of Moldova among others).