Meet The Artist: Alex Manea

Alex Manea is a modern contemporary artist with a timeless style hooking lovers of classic art at first glance, but the depth of his work resonates in the minds of viewers as they go about their day. His intricate attention to detail is apparent throughout alluring layers of ideas and techniques. You will view his art the first time and notice something spectacular, but then return later and feel something completely distinct from your original thoughts. This is what makes Alex Manea special; his ability to transform interpretations through multiple facets of thinking each time you view a piece of his work.

Born in Bucharest, Romania, Manea realized that art was his true calling at the age of 25. He dropped everything to commit fully to the lifestyle and quickly began creating some of those most vivid abstract and figurative paintings on the market.

“I began painting later than others,” Manea said. “First as a joke, but gradually it became an obsession for me and I realized this is what I was meant to do in life.”

While no life path is straightforward, Manea rode a turbulent ride until art pulled him in. Much of his inspiration is fuelled from his past experiences, and he is content with the way he has turned his life around. Manea now carries a more positive outlook, and his lively paintings rich with emotion support that.

“I was on a self-destructing path in my life, with non-stop partying, drinking and not caring about anything in particular,” he said. “So, I can say that art came like a salvation for me. I found a purpose, I am more relaxed, I don’t drink so much now. I have a wife and a child now. Art really helped me and I will always be grateful and appreciate art.”

Manea often changes methods, brushstrokes, or mediums while adapting his current focus as an individual. He maintains his originality as a person and his art reflects that. The best way for Manea to tell his stories on canvas is to adapt to reflect his current mood or life happenings.

Regardless, his focus is generally geared toward pushing the limits of creativity using nature, psychology, spirituality, and dreams.

“The art that I create is a window into my mind and soul that stays open for anyone who wants to take a look,” he said. “I often change styles, and my current working method is an eclectic one by combining elements from abstract expressionism, figurative expressionism, pop art, and others. I place my feelings and my thoughts that I have in a particular moment in their raw form on the canvas.”

Manea’s creative process allows him to display his present emotions onto a canvas, meshing the abstract with raw thoughts and feeling. His dreamlike images ooze personality and entice the viewer’s deep interpretations.

“I could paint a field of poppies and then for a second the poppies would seem like soccer balls to me,” he said. “Then I would cut or paint over the poppies and draw soccer balls over them. After that, maybe I would be thirsty, and I would draw a bottle of water, or maybe just write the word water or H20, and so on. I really enjoy it.”