I have long been intrigued by the concept of fate and chance.

My parents, Shula and Jona, were Romanian Jewish Holocaust survivors. Shula and Jona spoke fondly of an idyllic childhood and youth spent in the countryside prior to 1940 when Romania became an ally of Nazi Germany. Many of the Romanian artists in the Tyler Collection were of the same era. However, historical events determined for those artists a vastly different fate from that experienced by my parents. Creating art under the brutal dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu (1965-1989) had its own complexities, challenges and hardships. The Tyler artists found ways to express critical opinion by developing alternative, non-narrative forms of dissent such as the subversive political imagery in the etchings of Stefan Caltia and the ceramic self-portraits of Silvia Radu.

For this exhibition, I present artworks from the Tyler Collection that possess a broad cultural and historical significance. These are interwoven with deeply personal objects sourced from my parents and grandparents, and works I have created in response to my family’s history. My intention in this response to the Tyler Collection is to express themes of identity, memory, connection, absence and above all, resilience. In this way, seemingly disparate pieces are connected through time and space, allowing new visual and conceptual links to be formed.

The past cast a long shadow on the present. The stories and artworks that comprise the Tyler Collection help us to understand the harsh realities of life under the Ceausescu regime. The testimonies and precious mementos of my parents bear witness to history. Today, in our post-truth world, attempts are being made to erase historical facts, including those of the Holocaust. These facts are bering questioned, ignored, denied outright. Considering the alarming speed at which lies are being spread on social media platforms, the artwork and personal stories in Nice’n Easy are more important than ever.