Beauties and Birds began shortly after my move to London in 2010 and became one of the defining projects of my early artistic career. These works marked my first major public recognition in Romania and were among the first paintings of mine to enter important private collections and art auctions, including Artmark.
The project evolved from an earlier body of work titled Intimate Zoomorphism of Spirit (Berlin, 2009), continuing my exploration of the symbolic relationship between human identity and the animal world. In this series, birds became extensions of the psychological and emotional presence of the female figures represented in the paintings: projections of desire, vulnerability, seduction, grace, melancholy, instinct, and transformation.
Rather than functioning as decorative elements, the birds operated as intimate symbolic companions, revealing hidden emotional states or inner energies carried by the human figures. The relationship between woman and bird became a form of emotional zoomorphism: a merging of feminine presence with symbolic animal identity.
The series emerged from a personal fascination with beauty, not as perfection, but as atmosphere, gesture, magnetism, elegance, fragility, and emotional intensity. At the time, I felt increasingly surrounded by aggression, ugliness, and emotional disconnection in contemporary society, and painting became a way of reclaiming delicacy, mystery, and enchantment as meaningful artistic forces.
The birds themselves often contained metallic structures, mechanical details, or hybrid forms, reflecting an ongoing interest in the tension between nature and the increasingly artificial, industrialized world surrounding us. These mechanical intrusions appeared repeatedly throughout the series like subtle mutations of the natural world, suggesting both fascination and unease toward technological transformation.
The project was first exhibited publicly in 2011 as part of Wicked, an independent group exhibition created together with two other female artists during Noaptea Albă a Galeriilor (NAG) in Bucharest. The exhibition took place inside a large multi-level villa, where each artist transformed an entire floor into an immersive personal environment.
For my section of the exhibition, I transformed the entire floor into a dark atmospheric space by painting the walls, ceilings, and floors black, extending the visual world of the paintings into the architecture itself. The works, characterized by black backgrounds and solitary central figures, appeared almost suspended inside the darkness.
The exhibition incorporated sound, installation, performance, and ritual-like theatrical elements. We collaborated with a multimedia artist to create an immersive sound environment inspired partly by CocoRosie’s music, while the building itself functioned as a symbolic journey through different artistic worlds. Visitors moved from floor to floor almost like participants in a contemporary fairy tale or dream sequence, echoing the atmosphere of La Țigănci by Mircea Eliade.
Additional performances animated the opening nights: a fire performance took place in front of the villa, a magician interacted with visitors inside the exhibition, and the attic became a temporary social and musical space supported through independent drink sponsorships. The intention was not simply to exhibit artworks, but to “bewitch” visitors and immerse them in a parallel atmosphere suspended between femininity, ritual, mythology, dream, and performance.
The exhibition reopened during Noaptea de Sânziene, a Romanian midsummer celebration associated with folklore, femininity, magic, and transformation. For the event, the artists dressed in dresses inspired by the mythical Sânziene figures and wore floral crowns, extending the exhibition into a living performative ritual connected to Romanian mythological traditions.
Mediums: Oil and acrylic painting, immersive exhibition environment, sound collaboration, live performance
First major exhibition: Wicked, Bucharest, 2011
Events: NAG – Noaptea Albă a Galeriilor / Noaptea de Sânziene
Cadar Otilia. The Bird Whisperer, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 150x150 cm.
Cadar Otilia. The Bird Tamer, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 150x150 cm.
Cadar Otilia. Carla, 2010. Oil on canvas, 100x150 cm.
Cadar Otilia. Rita, 2011. Oil on canvas, 100x150 cm.
Cadar Otilia. Iva, 2011. Oil on canvas, 100x150 cm.
Cadar Otilia. Strida, 2012. Oil on canvas, 100x150 cm.
Cadar Otilia. Guiana, 2011. Oil on canvas, 100x150 cm.
Cadar Otilia. Yumiko, 2011. Oil on canvas, 100x150 cm.
Cadar Otilia. Vague, 2015. Oil on canvas, 250x150 cm.
Cadar Otilia working on Vague painting, 2015. Oil on canvas, 250x150 cm.
Documentation from the Wicked exhibition where Otilia Cadar showed the Beauties and Birds Project for the first time. 2011, Bucharest.
Strida displayed in the front window of Artmark Auction House in Bucharest.
Rita at Artmark Auction House in Bucharest.