Born 1978 in Sighisoara (Romania), Șerban Savu attended the University of Art and Design in Cluj (Romania), after which he was awarded a two-year research grant to Venice. Considered part of the group of painters known as the Cluj School, Savu’s figurative paintings capture the daily existence of contemporary Romanians at work and leisure with realistic depictions of life in urban and rural landscapes, evoking the essence of a rapidly changing society.
Drawing from his personal interest in ancient worlds and human nature, Savu explores various layers of reality through the lens of art history, in a revival of allegorical and mythical situations inspired by contemporary daily life or recent events. Using a subdued palette and impressionistic figures, he presents nature as dominated by concrete, such as in “Mountain of Nostalgia” (2008), in which men sift through wreckage in a junkyard. An anti-heroic update to Socialist Realism, Savu’s work also references the history of landscape painting. He lives and works in Cluj.