Dissonant Silence: The Terminus of Absence. Lucian Dragomir
23rd December 2023 – 21st January 2024
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Atticus Gallery proudly presents Dissonant Silence: The Terminus of Absence, a powerful solo exhibition by Romanian artist Lucian Dragomir, whose evocative oil paintings confront viewers with meditations on impermanence, loss, and the fragile echo of memory in an ecologically uncertain world. Known for his masterful use of classical techniques and contemporary conceptual framing, Dragomir’s work draws on both personal and collective histories to illuminate the quiet collapse of meaning in the Anthropocene.
Inspired by the vanitas tradition of early Dutch and Flemish still life painting, Dragomir offers a new interpretation of mortality for the 21st century. His subject matter—animal carcasses, fragments of organic matter, decomposing landscapes—is rendered with haunting beauty, detail, and restraint. These are not images of horror, but of elegy. His paintings confront viewers not with death, but with its aftermath—its sediment, its silence.
Dragomir’s work sits at the intersection of ecology, memory, and metaphysical inquiry. Each canvas is an invitation to reflect on the impermanence of all things: species, language, culture, even perception itself. Working with a subdued palette of earth tones, ash greys, and muted golds, he creates works that pulse with a kind of muted light—one that belongs less to illumination and more to aftermath.
To accompany the exhibition, a bespoke soundscape composed by Jonny Greenwood amplifies the emotional and philosophical charge of Dragomir’s paintings. Compositions such as Water and Prospector’s Quartet intertwine ambient textures with classical melancholy, heightening the visceral presence of absence throughout the space. The result is an immersive environment that deepens the viewer’s encounter with silence—not as void, but as weight, atmosphere, and memory.
The installation at Atticus Gallery is designed to unfold as a reflective journey. Sculptural interventions and mirrored surfaces resonate with the themes of recursion and renewal. The dim, chamber-like environment holds space for contemplation, drawing out questions that hover quietly in the air: How do we remember what was never fully seen? How does beauty survive when its frame collapses?
Dragomir’s roots in Romanian visual culture are present in his handling of myth, soil, and memory. Romania’s layered relationship with historical trauma—both environmental and political—runs beneath the surface of his work. Though not overtly autobiographical, the paintings carry a kind of stillness one associates with watching something long buried slowly resurface.
Dissonant Silence is not a spectacle, but a slow burn—its power lies in the restraint, the unresolved tension between what has vanished and what remains. It is a space where light falters, form decays, and silence becomes a presence too full to ignore.
All proceeds from the exhibition’s donations will support cultural and ecological preservation initiatives in Eastern Europe, in recognition of Dragomir’s ongoing commitment to the endurance of both landscape and legacy.
Visitor Information
Opening Hours: Monday – Saturday | 10:00 – 18:00
Location: Atticus Gallery, 11a Queen Street, Bath
Admission: Free
