Corina Dinu - What We Carry

Two faces lean into each other, close enough to share breath, and between them — held carefully, wrapped in blue and gold — something small and precious. You don't need to ask what it is. The way they hold it tells you everything.

Artist: Corina Dinu, Romanian, b. 1979

Title, year, medium: "What We Carry," 2026, acrylic and gold leaf (schlagmetall) on canvas, heavy impasto technique
Dimensions:
Image size: 90 x 140 cm
Canvas size: 100 x 150 cm
Framed size: N/A — sold unframed
Signature: Signed lower right, front, in acrylic
Edition: Unique work, not a print or edition — one of one
Provenance: Sold directly from the artist's studio
Documentation: Certificate of Authenticity included, signed by the artist, provided upon sale
Condition: Excellent, as created — no restoration, no damage, no fading
Shipping: Sent unframed, rolled in a rigid protective tube. Shipment is insured for full value and fully tracked, with tracking number provided upon dispatch.

I built this piece the way I build my most personal work: warm against warm, red against gold, until the whole canvas feels like it's holding its breath. The impasto here is some of the heaviest I've done — thick ridges of acrylic that catch raking light differently depending on the hour, and schlagmetall leaf applied generously across the background, not as accent but as atmosphere. Every spiral and circle motif took hours by hand, layered until the surface has real depth you can feel, not just see.

This is a piece about what people carry for each other — a child, a memory, a promise — and how tenderness and protection can look identical from the outside.

I trained in Fine Arts and at the Istituto Marangoni, and my work has been sold through the Tate Gallery and Rippingham Art Gallery in London.