Well-known to Irish audiences as violinist, collaborator, educator and Leader of the Ulster Orchestra, Ioana Petcu-Colan’s creative curiosity has opened new doors in recent years. An emerging visual artist, her drawing has featured in exhibitions including both the RUA Belfast and RHA Dublin Annual Exhibitions, online and in print. 

 

Ioana also explores the relationships between sound and image through her violin, exploring collaborative improvisation with artists from different disciplines.

 

’As a highly-trained classical musician but mostly self-taught visual artist, the thread across my various collaborations is the elasticity between what we’ve learned and what’s intuitive. 

 

My current focus is on exploring alternative forms of expression that merge visual art and music in unusual and personal ways - through my drawings, graphic scores, violin-playing and collaborations.’

 

Refractions at TSEAC invites viewers to experience one sense through another, reframing music as visual art in a collection of memories and references from Ioana’s life as a professional musician. Charcoal and silverpoint self-portraits of Ioana’s own hands hold fragments of melody, while her own previously-played violin strings and bow hair bring echoes of past performances to graphic scores, ready for new interpretation. 

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This exhibition will be on show in our Easter Snow Gallery from 17th August – 7th October 2026, open daily from 10:00am-4.00 p.m.

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To make an enquiry, please contact Colette on: 087 9697054 or email: info@tseac.ie​​​​