T e o d o r a T r o f i m o v
Art History graduate, University of Groningen
Master student in Museology and
Curatorship at the University of Bologna
February, 2026
Cuesta de la Vega
Madrid Series, #1, 40/30cm, oil on cardboard, 2026
With Cuesta de la Vega, Florian Doru Crihana opens his Madrid series on an eerily spiritual note. A palette of colored grays, pale blues, warm ochres, and muted deep greens conjures a space that feels at once tangible and otherworldly. A stone staircase leads downward towards a crypt and upward towards an intricate, gilded altarpiece that seems to be suspended in midair, framed only by shrubs of greenery. To the left of this seemingly weightless structure, two lamps frame a wall niche containing a statue of a saint.
Through these carefully staged architectural elements, the artist subtly invokes the layered history of Madrid and its Almudena Cathedral. The title refers to Cuesta de la Vega, the hill bordering the ravine that once protected the Muslim citadel of Mayrit. Named after the vanished Puerta de la Vega, one of the gates in the Arab wall of the al-mudayna (citadel), the site later became emblematic of the city’s Christian reconquest. The present Almudena Cathedral rises where a medieval mosque once stood, destroyed after Alfonso VI reclaimed Madrid.
The modest niche in the painting recalls the legend of the Virgin of Almudena. According to tradition, a statue of the Virgin Mary was hidden within the city walls before the Muslim conquest and miraculously revealed itself to Alfonso VI after days of prayer, when part of the wall crumbled to expose it. Ever since, she has been venerated as Madrid’s spiritual patroness, her presence woven into the city’s historical and devotional identity. Within the Almudena Cathedral, her richly adorned altar rises in striking contrast to the vast whiteness of the interior—a contrast that finds a poetic counterpart in Crihana’s gilded altarpiece, which appears to hover weightlessly at the top of the staircase, suspended between earth and transcendence.
News / Short Updates
1st of February, 2026
The first Don Quixote catalog has been produced – an artist’s edition. It contains 45 color images, reproductions of paintings exhibited in Izmir, Turkey. The artist put it up for sale on his personal Facebook network..
From Lisbon to Madrid
T e o d o r a T r o f i m o v
Art History graduate, University of Groningen
Master student in Museology and
Curatorship at the University of Bologna
February, 2026
Romanian contemporary artist Florian Doru Crihană is widely known for his painted cityscapes, depicting urban landmarks from his home country—such as Galați and Brăila—to major European destinations including Venice, Potsdam, and Strasbourg, as well as cities beyond the continent, among them New York. The start of the new year marks the unveiling of his 21st thematic series, this time dedicated to Madrid, the capital of Spain.
The Madrid project follows closely on the completion of Crihană’s Lisbon series, finalized toward the end of 2025 and comprising 40 works focused on the Portuguese capital. For the artist, the number is deliberate: forty pieces represent, in his view, the minimum required to fully capture a city’s essence. Each new series begins with an in-depth exploration of the historic core of the chosen city, with particular attention given to its cathedral, often treated as both architectural anchor and symbolic point of departure.
In Madrid, this approach is reflected in the opening work of the series, Cuesta de la Vega, which takes inspiration from the Almudena Cathedral. The cathedral itself is a striking example of eclectic historicism: its exterior is defined by refined Neoclassical lines, its interior by Neo-Gothic grandeur, while the crypt—marked by heavy columns and rounded arches—belongs to a Neo-Romanesque revival. As the conceptual starting point of the series, Cuesta de la Vega signals Crihană’s ongoing interest in cities shaped by layered histories and enduring architectural identities.
News / Short Updates
31st of January, 2026
A new series of 45 works, “Don Quixote de La Mancha,” will be exhibited for one month at the Ahmet Adnan Saygun Cultural Center in Izmir. The official opening will take place on Wednesday, February 4, at 6:30 PM.
Curator: İbrahim Karaoğlu, Coordonator: Dr. Zeki Hozer
Florian Doru Crihana 