About

Explore the human soul, in all its beauty, fragility, and light.

My art is guided by a persistent quest for the undefined. I don't paint to find an answer, but to approach that "something" that always eludes me—that ultimate truth for some, that essence of life for others, or—to borrow Kundera's words—that "unbearable lightness of being." This quest is not voluntary, it imposes itself upon me like an inner force, a call from the subconscious that compels me to continue, to search, to delve deeper.

ARTISTIC APPROACH

My artistic practice is rooted in a deep conviction - I believe that art is not a stylistic exercise, nor an adherence to a movement, nor a gesture seeking to please. It is an inner movement, a vital necessity, a force that compels me and drives me to explore the human being in all its complexity. From the beginning, I tried to keep a distance from trends and categories, because I believe that as artist, I must create outside of frameworks, in a space where intuition, sensitivity, and human experience become the true guides.

The heart of my work is a tribute to humankind - its strength, its courage, its fragility, but above all, to its hope. This hope, often tenuous but always present, is for me the driving force of my inner evolution. My canvases seek to capture this invisible movement: the oscillations of the soul, the tensions between body and mind, the impulses that flow through us and transform us. I paint not to represent, but to reveal. I try to capture what eludes words: the intimate vibration, the deep breath, the fragile light that dwells within each being.

My work is mainly carried out on large format canvases, where gesture plays a central role. Using acrylic paint, ink, and oil pastels, my mixed media techniques become extensions of my own inner movements. I deliberately limit my palette to two or three saturated tones, which I contrast with areas of muted color. This chromatic economy is not a constraint, but a way to concentrate energy, to allow the material to breathe, to give the gesture its full expressive power. Forms emerge, dissolve, and recompose themselves, revealing human silhouettes, gazes, fragments of stories. Nothing is riveted - everything is in motion.

I conceive of my works as spaces for dialogue. Dialogue between form and void, between matter and light, between interiority and the world. A dialogue also unfolds between the viewer and themselves. I hope that everyone can, if only for a moment, recognize themselves in my works, find a fragment of themselves, a buried emotion, or a forgotten memory. I wish to offer an experience - a suspended moment where one relives an encounter, where one reconnects with one's soul, where one allows oneself to be traversed by an emotion.

This exploration is guided by a persistent quest for the undefined. I do not paint to find an answer, but to approach that "something" that always eludes us—that ultimate truth for some, that essence of life or soul for others, or even—to borrow Kundera's words—that "unbearable lightness of being." This quest is not voluntary - it imposes itself upon me like an inner force, a call from the subconscious that compels me to continue, to search, to delve deeper.

My recent works delve into emotional archetypes, into the areas of tension between humility and desire, between light and fracture, between grounding and elevation. In Reverentia, the luminous halo—broken, imperfect—becomes the symbol of a human reverence, fragile yet authentic. In Nostalgia and Affectio, I seek to grasp emotional memory, that which persists within us despite the passage of time. These works mark a turning point in my practice - they move away from narrative to enter a more universal, more meditative dimension, where painting becomes a space for active contemplation. 

I deeply believe that art must transcend the artist. A work should not be read through the biography of its creator, but through the energy it carries and transmits. Art is an indirect confidence - the work speaks the words we cannot utter. It reveals what the artist himself could not otherwise express. When we humanize art too much, we reduce it to the scale of the individual - Art - in its purest form - aspires to touch something vaster, something more timeless.

It is in this spirit that I continue my work. I paint to create bridges between people, to offer spaces where we can find ourselves, lose ourselves, and transform. I paint to give form to the invisible, to make perceptible what flows through us without allowing us to grasp it. I paint because it is my way of breathing, of understanding the world, of conversing with it.

My work is constantly evolving, but it remains faithful to this essential quest - to explore the human soul, in all its beauty, fragility, and light.

BIOGRAPHY

Originally from Romania, Nicolas Novac discovered in art a vital refuge at a very young age, a space to breathe and build himself. “Art came into my life quite early. It was my lifeline… Art is my oxygen,” he confides, recalling a childhood marked by introversion and the difficulty of finding his place. It was his grandmother who opened the doors of creation to him, revealing a universe where he could finally express himself differently. From the age of 11 or 12, he knew that art would be his path, his driving force, his language.

In 1998, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from George Enescu University in Iași, where he specialized in set design for puppet theater. This choice was not insignificant: he found fertile ground there where visual arts, dramaturgy, and the creation of immersive atmospheres converged. This training nurtured his sensitivity to human presence, gesture, and the tension between the visible and the invisible - themes that would become central to his practice.

At the turn of the millennium, he left Romania to settle in Canada with his wife. Despite the degrees and experience accumulated within a troupe specializing in puppet theatre, he is starting from scratch, determined to rebuild his artistic trajectory. In 2004, he completed a degree in multimedia at the University of Montreal, then settled permanently in Pincourt in 2010. There, he became deeply rooted in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges artistic community, where he became involved in various projects and forged connections that enriched his development.

His career is marked by numerous awards that attest to the recognition of his work:

2003 - The Need to Fly, first solo exhibition, Galerie Rotonda, Iași

2016 - Winner – Montreal Art Center (jury competition)

2017 - ATIM’s Top 60 Masters Awards

2019 - Florence Biennale, Fortezza da Basso, Florence, Italy

2020 - Winner TRACE 2019-2020, CACVS

These milestones mark a steady progression, but also a commitment to a deeply personal artistic vision. Nicolas primarily creates on large-format canvases using mixed media, acrylic paint, ink, and oil pastels. His deliberately limited palette—two or three saturated tones, contrasted by flat areas of primary colors—reinforces the intensity of his brushstrokes and the vibrancy of his forms. His works reveal human silhouettes, fleeting glances, and fragments of silent narratives. He doesn't seek to represent, but to reveal: an inner movement, a tension, a presence.

"I place at the heart of my works the hymn that I dedicate to humankind, to its strength, its courage, its weakness and above all its hope," he writes. This statement encapsulates the essence of his approach: an exploration of human fragility, its impulses, its contradictions. His canvases capture "the inescapable movement of the soul," this subtle vibration that flows through the being and that the artist attempts to grasp in its purest intensity.

For Nicolas, art is a dialogue—a dialogue between oneself and oneself, between the soul and its polarities, between matter and space. His works invite the viewer to active contemplation, a meditation with open eyes. They offer a suspended moment where each person can "relive an encounter, reconnect with their soul, their emotions," or even discover a previously unexplored inner dimension.

His research is guided by a persistent quest for the undefined, for that "something" difficult to name: ultimate truth for some, the essence of life for others, or even "the unbearable lightness of being." This quest is not voluntary: it imposes itself as an inner force, a call from the subconscious that compels the artist to continue, to delve deeper, to search.

Today, Nicolas Novac's works are recognized for their emotional intensity, their introspective depth, and their ability to resonate with audiences of all ages. Exhibited in Canada, Europe, and the United States, they bear witness to an artistic vision that transcends borders and trends. For him, art must be judged for what it is, independently of the artist: "The second you humanize a work of art, its value diminishes." The artwork, he says, carries its own energy, almost sacred, which continues to live as long as humanity exists.

Nicolas Sorin Novac continues to pursue a committed, sincere, and resolutely human-centered practice. His art, both powerful and fragile, remains an invitation to see differently, to feel fully, to enter into dialogue with what moves us. A living body of work, which breathes, which questions, and which, above all, continues to hope.

CURICUULUM VITAE

EDUCATION

Studies

• 1998 — Bachelor of Arts, George Enescu University, Iași, Romania

• 2004 — Certificate in Multimedia, University of Montreal, Canada

Internships

• 2001 — Direct Stone Carving Internship, Spoleto, Italy

• 2003 — Intaglio Internship with Marcel Chirnoaga, Bucharest, Romania

Professional Affiliations

• Member of RAAV – Regroupement des artistes en arts visuels du Québec (Quebec Association of Visual Artists)

• Member of CACVS – Conseil des Arts et de la Culture de Vaudreuil-Soulanges (Vaudreuil-Soulanges Arts and Culture Council)

• Member of M.E.A.L. – Free Artistic Expression Movement, Pincourt

• Member of the Vaudreuil-Soulanges Arts Route

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

Canada

• 2023 — Inner Light, Saint-Lazare Municipal Library

• 2020–2021 — Soul Gesture, Maison Trestler, Vaudreuil

• 2019 — Exquisite Moment, Hangart Saint-Denis, Montreal

• 2018 — The Unbearable Fragility of Being, Galerie Éphémère, Vaudreuil-Dorion

• 2017 — The Ephemeral Idyll, City Hall, Pincourt

• 2016 — Icarus's Dream, Pincourt Library

Europe

• 2008 — It Takes Time, Istituto Romeno di Cultura, Venice

• 2003 — The Need to Fly, Galerie Rotonda, Iași, Romania

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (JURY SELECTION)

International

• 2022 — CLIO, New York

• 2019 — Florence Biennale, Fortezza da Basso, Florence, Italy

• 2017 — Art Tour International, Florence, Italy

• 2008 — Istituto Romeno di Cultura, Spoleto, Italy

• 2001— Istituto Romeno di Cultura, Venice, Italy

• 2000 — Istituto Romeno di Cultura, Venice, Italy

• 1999 — Belushi Gallery, Carnevale di Spoleto, Italy

Canada

• 2017 — Montreal World Trade Center, Montreal

• 2016 — Global Art League, Montreal

• 2016 — International Gallery of the Arts, Toronto

• 2016 — Montreal Art Center, Montreal

• 1998 — Rotonda Gallery, Iași, Romania

GRANTS AND AWARDS

• 2019 — TRACE Recipient 2019-2020 CACVS

• 2017 — ATIM’s Top 60 Masters Award

• 2016 — Global Art League, 2nd place

• 2016 — International Gallery of the Arts, 2nd place

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Mozaik

https://jesuismozaik.com/journal-culturel/un-cafe-cinq-questions-nicolas-sorin-novac

• Vaudreuil-Soulanges Arts and Culture Council — TRACE

https://www.artculturevs.ca/trace-2019-2020.html

• Top 60 Masters of Contemporary Art, Art Tour International, 2017

• Neomedia Vaudreuil-Soulanges, March 2018

https://www.neomedia.com/vaudreuil-soulanges/actualites/culturel/331362/deux-univers-deux-expositions-une-seule-galerie

CURRENT PRACTICE AND ARTISTIC DIRECTION

Nicolas's recent works—notably Nostalgia, Affectio, and Reverentia—mark a significant turning point in his practice. They deepen his exploration of fundamental emotions and human archetypes, while affirming a renewed mastery of gestural and symbolic language.

In Reverentia, the artist explores the tension between humility and desire—a symbol of imperfect yet profoundly human reverence. This new, more introspective and universal direction marks a pivotal moment in his career.

His work, already internationally recognized, has the potential for even greater impact. She belongs to a lineage of artists who use figurative abstraction to explore the human soul, while offering a unique vision informed by her personal history, her migratory journey, and her community involvement.

Nicolas Novac’s work is distinguished by its emotional depth, aesthetic coherence, and its ability to create a space for encounter between the human and the ineffable.

His career demonstrates remarkable consistency, sustained evolution, and a profound commitment to creation and the artistic community.

Today, his work has reached a maturity that deserves wider national recognition. His practice, resolutely focused on exploring the human soul, enriches the Canadian artistic landscape and contributes to its international reach.