Renata Darabant (AT)

visual artist, educator, cultural organizer

Renata Darabant is an artist, educator and cultural organiser who works at the intersection of printmaking, knowledge transfer and international artistic exchange. Born in Oradea, Romania, she studied at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and at  the University of the Arts in Tokyo. Her practice is rooted in intaglio, photogravure and Japanese woodblock printing. She understands the studio as a space for cultivating knowledge through material encounter, not merely as a place of production.

She runs the Druckwerk Wien printmaking workshop and is Head of the Central Intaglio Print Workshop at the Institute of Fine Arts at the Academy of Vienna. There, she has developed a teaching practice that connects historical and sustainable printmaking techniques with contemporary artistic discourse. Alongside her teaching and artistic practice, Renata founded The Print Fest, an international printmaking platform connecting practitioners, institutions and communities across Europe. This project has received EU support and is hosted annually in different academies. Her recent project called ditto.press, is a collaborative publishing framework for artists’ editions in which currently she is working with a group of young artists on the first publication.

Her work consistently moves beyond national boundaries while remaining deeply committed to sustaining the conditions in which others can work, think, and connect.

Dr. Vidhyasagar Upadhyay (IN)

painter, printmaker, art educator, cultural organizer

Dr. Vidhyasagar Upadhyay (India) is a painter, printmaker, art educator, and cultural organizer. He was born in 1948 in Partapur, Rajasthan, India. He received his Master’s degree in Painting from the University of Udaipur in 1970 and earned his PhD from Sukhadia University, Udaipur, in 1996. Between 1978 and 2007, he served as a university lecturer, head of department, and professor in the fields of painting and printmaking.

His artistic achievements have been recognized with numerous prestigious awards and distinctions. Among others, he received the National Award of the Lalit Kala Akademi (National Academy of Fine Arts, India), as well as several national awards and fellowships in the visual arts. The Government of Rajasthan honored him for his outstanding contribution to art education.

For more than four decades, he has been a prominent figure in contemporary Indian art. His solo exhibitions have been presented at leading museums, art institutions, and galleries across India, including venues in New Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, and Baroda, as well as in France. He has represented India at numerous international exhibitions and biennials in Japan, Bangladesh, Germany, Spain, Hungary, and the United Kingdom. His works are held in some of India’s most important public collections, including the National Gallery of Modern Art and the Lalit Kala Akademi, as well as in numerous public and private collections internationally.

Currently based in Jaipur, Dr. Upadhyay continues his artistic practice while actively contributing to the development of art education and international cultural exchange. His work brings together the rich traditions of painting and printmaking with contemporary visual thought, reflecting a lifelong commitment to artistic innovation and intercultural dialogue.

Prof. dr. István Erőss (HU)

István Erőss is a Hungarian visual artist who graduated from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in 1995. He furthered his studies at several prestigious international institutions, including the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and the University of Fine Arts in Marseille. In 2009, he earned his Doctor of Liberal Arts (DLA) degree and in 2015 he was appointed professor. Works as a professor at the Institute of Visual Arts of Eszterházy Károly University in Eger and since August 2021 he has been the rector of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts.

His artistic and academic career is characterized by extensive international engagement. He has undertaken numerous professional study trips to distant regions of the world, visiting Africa on five occasions and traveling to Asia more than fifty times. There he has participated as a guest artist, exhibitor, lecturer, curator and organizer of international artists’ camps and symposia.

He is the creator and organizer of the international exchange exhibition series SZEGMENS, whose events have been held in Hungary and several Asian countries. His artistic practice spans a wide range of media, from printmaking and installation art to sculpture.

For ten years, he was one of the organizers of the KorkéP International Artists’ Camp in Lăzarea (Gyergyószárhegy). He is also the initiator and professional advisor of the Szeklerland Graphic Biennial, founded in 2010, which has since become one of the most significant international graphic art exhibitions in the region.

Iulia Mirică (RO)

visual artist, graphic designer

Iulia Mirică is a visual artist and graphic designer whose practice operates at the intersection of narrative drawing, editorial illustration and the artistic book. Member of the Romanian Union of Visual Artists since 2025 and of the Bucharest Illustrators’ Club since 2026, she works both as an independent artist and as a professional in the media and independent cultural sectors. She holds both a Bachelor’s degree (2022) and a Master’s degree (2024) in Graphic Arts from the National University of Arts Bucharest. Her artistic practice focuses on ink drawing and the artist’s book, investigating memory as an active process of perception, reconstruction and reinterpretation. She approaches drawing as a deliberately slow and repetitive practice, working primarily in series in which the fragmentation of the image reflects the instability and fluidity of perception.

Her works have been featured in exhibitions including Timpul (ab)sorbit (Elite Art Gallery, 2025), Contemporary Drawing in Romania (Scemtovici & Benowitz Gallery, 2024), and Unsaved Stories (Galeria Laborna, 2024).

Working as a freelance illustrator and designer since 2019, she develops illustration and editorial design projects for clients in the cultural and publishing sectors. Her particular interests lie in narrative illustration and the visual construction of books. Her projects often originate from literary texts or culturally significant themes and are preceded by extensive research and visual conceptualization, resulting in works that extend beyond their immediate illustrative function and develop a strong narrative coherence of their own.

Since 2023, she has been actively collaborating with Atelierul de Grafică, a Bucharest-based organization behind several major cultural initiatives. She is also a member of the organizing team of Bucharest Graphic Days, where she is involved in the visual production and graphic identity of the festival. As one of the few platforms in Romania dedicated exclusively to graphic art, Bucharest Graphic Days brings together exhibitions, workshops and conferences featuring local and international artists and designers, serving as an important reference point for the professional community.

Alongside her artistic and cultural activities, she has been working at PRO TV since 2022, progressing from Junior to Senior News Graphic Designer. In this role, she develops and coordinates static and animated graphics for news broadcasts and television productions, creating graphic packages and visual identities within a live production environment characterized by strict deadlines and high technical standards.

Apor Ferencz S. (RO)

Ferencz S. Apor was born in Miercurea Ciuc in 1975. He completed his studies at the Nagy István High School of Arts in his hometown and later, between 1996 and 2001, he studied at the National University of Arts Bucharest. He is member of several professional organizations, including the Union of Visual Artists of Romania, the Barabás Miklós Guild, the Caffart Fine Arts Association and the MAMŰ Society (Budapest). He has curated or co-curated numerous exhibitions and professional events at institutions such as Pesti Vigadó, Kunsthalle Budapest, Transylvanian Art Centre (Sfântu Gheorghe) and the Szekler Museum of Ciuc (Miercurea Ciuc). Since 2017 he has served as the Artistic Director and Curator of the international Graphic Art Biennial of Szeklerland, organized in Sfântu Gheorghe and Miercurea Ciuc.

In his artistic practice, he primarily explores the problems of his own existence and environment. Themes of memory are strongly present in his works, which often carry a personal tone. He frequently creates installations, collages or reinterpretations using private objects and family photographs. His work often incorporates elements of social critique, while also leaving room for humor and an ironic tone. Found objects play an important role in his artistic vocabulary, and he occasionally incorporates elements of the material culture of his “province.”

His most notable professional recognitions include the Artist Grant of the Communitas Foundation (2003, 2010), the Budapest Gallery Scholarship (2006, 2019), the Hollósy Simon Scholarship (Hungarian Ministry of National Cultural Heritage / Illyés Public Foundation, 2006), the Barcsay Award (2011), the Special Prize of the 2nd Graphic Art Biennial of Szeklerland (2012), the three-year Artist Fellowship of the Hungarian Academy of Arts (2021–2024), as well as several creative grants from the National Cultural Fund of Hungary. He lives and works in his hometown, Miercurea Ciuc.

Dr. Beáta Bordás (RO)

art historian

Dr. Beáta Bordás (Romania) is an art historian born in 1986 in Sepsiszentgyörgy (Sfântu Gheorghe). She graduated from Babeș–Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, where she obtained her PhD in history in 2013. Between 2016 and 2021, she worked as a museologist and curator at the Art Museum of Cluj-Napoca. Since the summer of 2021, she has been serving as the director of the Transylvanian Art Centre in Sepsiszentgyörgy (Sfântu Gheorghe).

Her research focuses primarily on 19th- and 20th-century Transylvanian art, as well as the architecture of the historicist period in Transylvania. She is the author of numerous scholarly studies and several monographs dedicated to Transylvanian art and the region’s architectural heritage. Through her curatorial work, research and publications, she has made a significant contribution to the documentation, interpretation and promotion of Transylvania’s artistic and built heritage.