Aurora Király (b. 1970, Brăila, Romania; lives and works in Bucharest, Romania)
Viewfinder (2014-2025)

In Viewfinder, Aurora Király revisits an archive of her early photographic work from nearly two decades ago, capturing self-reflective moments in studios, residencies, and travels. By mounting these images on cardboard sheets, she explores framing, memory, and perception. Her gaze, shadow, or camera often appears, blurring lines between subject and observer. The series (2014-2025) predates the digital selfie era, offering a contemplative look at self-representation.

The project later evolved through using recent, everyday photographic notes and expanded into series which explore materiality and the history of the photographic medium. Viewfinder Clash (2025) explores the beginning of photography by creating a mock-up-module related to the daguerreotype cameras and late 19th century studio cameras and by approaching an old technique - the gelatin silver print on glass, using glass coated by hand with liquid emulsion. The negative on glass is inserted on the architectural module realized from transparent colored acrylic, in various shades of blue, green, and brown.

Aurora Király is an artist working at the intersection of photography, drawing, textile art, and installation, exploring how the mind records, relives and remembers. Her projects explore feminist theories and the status of women in society, connecting public and private spheres of experience. Active since the 1990s, Király has played a vital role in shaping Romania’s contemporary photography scene through education, exhibitions, and cultural initiatives.

Select solo exhibitions include Beyond the photographic frame, curated by Sonia Voss, Anca Poterasu Gallery, Bucharest (2025); Back Stages - duo show with Sophie Thun, curated by Mirela Baciak, Anca Poterasu Gallery, Bucharest (2023); Feminine Archaeology, International Center for Contemporary Art, Bucharest (2000). Select group exhibitions include Klemm’s Gallery, Germany (2023); The Museum of Contemporary Art, Romania (2023); Waldburger Wouters, Belgium (2021); Bienala Art Encounters, Romania (2017). Her works are held in collections including MoMA, New York; Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Paris; and European Parliament’s Contemporary Art Collection, Brussels, Belgium.

Anca Poterașu Gallery, founded in 2011 and located in Bucharest, Romania, is committed to showcasing Romanian contemporary artists, with a focus on photographic media and the visibility and representation of women artists. The gallery supports a select group of both established and emerging artists, promoting their work nationally and internationally. Its curatorial profile explores themes relevant to contemporary art discourse, such as memory and ecology. Beyond exhibition-making, the gallery is actively involved in building a sustainable artistic ecosystem through the ARAC residency program, a platform for research and intercultural exchange that connects local artistic traditions with contemporary practices, supporting collaborative and interdisciplinary work processes.