Francois Speranza, Arts et Lettres, August 2017

   Mihai Bara’s universe is populated by a constellation of   phantasmagoric creatures evolving in a playful aesthetic  atmosphere. The force of this universe resides in the strikingly vivid fauvist colours : red, green, yellow, blue that theatrically  bring the subject-matter into focus. The artist thereby reconnects with the pictorial legacy of the   past. On the basis of an elegant neo-expressionist manner, he also approaches the contorted classical German expressionism, as well as the primitivism as viewed by the neo-expressionists of the early 80-ies : the return to nature…….through the myth of a colour scheme reminiscent of Gaugain-s. There is also a cubist intent in his conception of volume, in the way he “breaks down”his characters, especially their faces, into fragments with a view to deforming them. And in so doing he is again expressionist, in his critical distortion of the event narrated.  It is impossible for a visitor to walk by any of the artist’s works   without being struck by his extraordinary colour scheme resultIng from an extremely worked out matter.

 The artist’s creative journey has known several stages. We have already mentioned his abstractionist debut. This is visible in his blurred treatment of surfaces. The human image plays a social and political role, one of receptacle of the various states of the soul. It exibits a dialectic acceptace of the Self as rediscoveredin the Other.    

 We are plunged into full neo-expressionist dialectic : the human image dematerializes so as to become conscience.

 The artist is fascinated by the intimate view, by the individual  conscience of what society reveals of itself : the image of a  show-like society. The human image is multi-facial, being just a small piece in the social puzzle.  Despite the neo-expressionist direction of his painting, the artist is firmly against labels, placing himself outside express- Ion. For the expression relies on the intimate perception of the  World.