Silvia Barbescu

Silvia Barbescu (born 1961) is a Romanian multi-disciplinary artist who has been developing her career in Mexico since 2000, after being invited to the country by the Mexican government. Preferring to work with mixed media and mixed techniques, with images based on nature, her work has been recognized by various awards as well as membership in the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana and the Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte in Mexico.

Life Barbescu was born in Bucharest, Romania, growing up during the communist era.

She attended the Nicolae Grigorescu Art Academy in Bucharest from 1980 to 1985, graduating with a degree in mural and art restoration.

Although free to leave the country after the end of communism, she remained in Romania until 2000, when she went to Mexico as part of a grant. She became fascinated by the country and its culture, deciding to stay. She received a scholarship from the Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores to study her master's degree in visual arts at the Academy of San Carlos from 2001 to 2003.

She has received prizes, grants and residencies in Poland, Bulgaria, Holland and Mexico, including a grant from the Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, a scholarship to study at the Academy of San Carlos from the same institution, various grants from the government of Mexico City and the XII Diego Rivera Drawing and Print Biennal in Guanajuato. One example is the use of print and ceramic for Geografías y memoria, sponsored and created in collaboration with Uriarte Talavera.

Barbescu's works focus on nature and complicated organic forms, an extension of her earlier work depicting forests. She creates analogies between nature and what it means to be human, with the aim of depicting what is internal and cannot be seen. Her work is humanistic with elements of abstract expression.