“In a time of the predominance of the show that is often consumed at the level of purely optical effect, ephemeral, circulated both first media and through art, the young Romanian painter manifests himself as an impatient promoter of an anthropocentric approach, keeping man at the center of the universe and the evocative investigation of essences.
To give the basis and duration of his imaginative invocations Mihail Tomescu makes recurs to memory: Hence that popular revelation of images of ethereal facts and archaeological insignia born from the foam of the seas, from the kingdom of shadows, from the illuminations of the burning magma (Pompeii... an hour before, Minos, Miraculous Fishing, Centaur cornering Chimera and so on). In a beautiful reconquering attempt, a personification of the human aspiration towards completion is realized, displaying splendors of the eternal feminine, shipwrecks to a wonderful world, fauns and singers under the spell of music, configurations of edenic spaces steadfast under the zodiac of eternity. It is instilled at the level of evocations and a nostalgic air, a discreet elegiac breath in aura like compositions of an enigmatic metaphorical thrill. Emblematic is on this disturbing cycle thread Song for a night bird in which the feeling of a tireless vigil is cultivated, waiting for certainties.
What gives consistency and fascination to Mihail Tomescu's painting arises from the memorable sense of matter and modulation of accents, from the constant will and concern to invest the pigment and the overall tuning the entire capacity of expressive sound.”
Encyclopedia of Contemporary Romanian Artists
About
Mihail Tomescu (b. 1971) is a Romanian visual artist living and working in Nashville, Tennessee. Known for his dynamic visual language and layered cultural references, Tomescu’s work reflects a deep engagement with identity, migration, and the evolving dialogue between tradition and contemporary expression.
He earned his MFA from Penn State School of Visual Arts and his BFA from University of Arts and Design Cluj-Napoca. Following graduation, he relocated with his wife, Dr. Mona Tomescu, and their daughter Ana to Southeast Missouri. In 2012, he opened his own art gallery in the historic Cotton Exchange Bank building in downtown Kennett, Missouri—transforming the landmark space into a vibrant cultural venue.
Until 2017, when he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, Tomescu traveled extensively, immersing himself in diverse cultural environments. These experiences significantly influenced his artistic direction, as he actively assimilated and explored varied identities through his work. Over the past five years, he has lived and worked in Austin, Texas, and Oahu, Hawaii—locations that further expanded his engagement with multicultural narratives and contemporary artistic discourse.
Today, based in Nashville and Memphis, TN Tomescu continues to develop a body of work shaped by movement, memory, and cross-cultural dialogue.
The work of Mihail Tomescu can be envisioned as an inexhaustible repository of visual chimeras—forms that come to life within hidden yet ever-present, unexpected yet vividly suggested stratified catacombs. These imagined spaces are not merely seen but realized and absorbed through the mind’s interpretive faculties, activated by the optical apparatus of the viewer.
Rooted in a deep fascination with the landscape of his early childhood—the cliffs and caves of western Transylvania—Tomescu’s visual language is inseparable from memory. Stories told by his late grandfather intertwine with the geological drama of that terrain, forming a mythic substratum that continues to animate his work. Fueled by lifelong reminiscence, his paintings unfold as layered protoplasmic visual fields: environments in which static reality continually de-constitutes and reconstitutes itself, revealing the subtle, often unseen forces that govern physical existence.
Tomescu’s artistic approach is marked by relentless experimentation—a perpetual pendulum swinging between oil on canvas, mixed media, and more recently, monoprint processes. Each medium becomes a site of tribulation and discovery, reinforcing his commitment to material inquiry and transformation.
His palette, often grounded in humble, earth-bound tonalities, periodically erupts into histrionic bursts of chromatic intensity. Yet these explosions are never permitted to fully surrender to chaos. Instead, they are restrained—tempered by an underlying discipline, as if a private compulsion toward control guides the orchestration of color. This tension between impulse and regulation fuels his pursuit of aesthetic harmony, where turbulence and order coexist in dynamic equilibrium.
