Jecza Gallery is pleased to announce the representation of Bucharest based artist Matei Emanuel (b. 2001). The gallery will present works by the artist this June at Basel Social Club, marking the first international presentation of Matei’s practice within the gallery’s program. This summer, new works will also be included in a group exhibition at Jecza Gallery Bucharest, alongside Ana Ionescu and Andrei Arion.
Our gallery first presented Matei Emanuel’s work in 2023, when he was included in the exhibition Quarks, Leptons & Bosons curated by Horatiu Lipot at Jecza Gallery in Timișoara. His works have also been presented in major group exhibitions and art fairs, including RAD Art Fair (2024, 2025) and RAD Sculpture Park, and he is a nominee for the Peter Jecza Award for Sculpture of the Year 2025.
Matei Emanuel’s practice involves creating social ironies using objects made from various materials and techniques. The artist focuses on introducing works with serial product aesthetics, challenging the art world's sophisticated values and expectations that often dismiss the appreciation of a comical attitude.
As Alexandra Moț writes in Revista ARTA, Emanuel’s use of animal imagery reflects on childhood perception and the limits of understanding the non-human world: “The choice of animal content closely linked to notions learned in childhood allowed him to show the ingenuity of human understanding. The work Takay Gekko, named after a blue lizard that Matthew tries to reproduce from his childhood modeling, relies on the idea that imitation of an organism, however naive, can maintain the referent’s features regardless of similarity. The material used is a finite one, but the surface of the object tries to imitate the varying texture of playdough. Even in the case of organisms recognizable to humans, their way of manifesting themselves in nature is actually hidden, and the simplification of some natural systems only helps to partially understand the non-human environment.”
Matei Emanuel was born in Bucharest, Romania, in 2001. He completed his BA in Sculpture (2020–2023) and is currently pursuing his MA in Sculpture (2023–2026) at the National University of Arts in Bucharest . His recent solo exhibitions include Do I Need A Map To Travel To The Center Of The Earth? (Atelier 35, Bucharest, 2025) and A Matter Of Matter (Cazul 101, Bucharest, 2023) , alongside participations in major group exhibitions and art fairs, including RAD Art Fair (2024, 2025) .
Through this representation, Jecza Gallery continues its commitment to supporting artists whose practices critically engage with contemporary realities and expand the possibilities of sculpture in dialogue with the language of objects and production.
Learn more about the artist here .