Contemporary artist Florin Mihai creates minimalist artwork using black ink and gold or silver leaf on canvas. His works capture landscapes from top cities such as New York, Phoenix, London, or Paris.

Florin Mihai

My artistic practice blends photography, drawing, and gilding into a unique mixed media technique that transforms real-world scenes into evocative visual statements. Working primarily with black ink on my own photographs, I meticulously enhance these compositions by hand, using accents of gold and silver foil applied onto stretched canvas. This approach bridges the realms of traditional image-making and contemporary material expression.

The subject matter of my work ranges from urban skylines, industrial architecture, and quiet suburban corners, to natural landscapes, forests, still life, and street scenes. I am drawn to moments of stillness, symmetry, and light everyday environments elevated through composition and surface treatment. The gilded elements lend both luminosity and a sense of timelessness, highlighting select architectural lines, reflections, foliage, or sky. This gives my pieces a graphic clarity and tactile richness while preserving the emotional imprint of the original photographic moment.

Each piece is printed and worked manually, resulting in a distinctive fusion of photorealistic detail and abstract surface play. My use of metallic leaf is not merely decorative, it invites the viewer to pause and reflect, revealing how light interacts with material, memory, and perspective.

Whether depicting a Parisian interior, a Swedish canal, a remote birch forest, or the shimmering horizon of a modern skyline, my art explores how places carry atmosphere, nostalgia, and narrative. It is a celebration of both structure and impermanence rooted in observation, elevated by technique.

Where photography meets gold, and memories become art

My studio is where photography meets painting, where fleeting moments captured by the camera are transformed into timeless works of art. I begin with photographs I take myself, then reinterpret them into striking graphic compositions.

Each piece is brought to life with black ink, gold, and silver leaf, carefully applied on canvas stretched on a wooden frame.

The use of metallic foils creates a play of light and shadow that shifts as you move around the artwork, giving every cityscape, street corner, or landscape an almost cinematic depth.

My focus is on urban scenes and iconic landmarks, from the romantic canals of Venice to the energy of New York, but also familiar places that tell a story of memory and identity.

Each canvas is a dialogue between the real and the imagined, where detail meets abstraction and tradition meets modernity.

My goal is to create works that not only decorate a space but also spark emotion, curiosity, and reflection.

An art studio corner with several cityscape paintings leaning against a white wall and on an easel, a leather sofa, and a hardwood floor.
Multiple paintings of cityscapes and landscapes displayed against a white wall, with one large framed painting on an easel at the center.

In my studio, photographs become visions. What begins as a captured moment is reimagined with black ink, gold and silver leaf, transformed into luminous cityscapes and landscapes on canvas.

The shimmer of metal against deep contrasts brings each scene to life, shifting with the light and inviting new perspectives.

My art is a dialogue between memory and imagination, crafted to inspire emotion and enrich the spaces it inhabits.

Curriculum Vitae

2025 - Group Exhibition, Autonom Gallery, Piatra Neamt.

2024 - Group Exhibition, Sestri Art Gallery, Piatra Neamt.

2023 - Group Exhibition, "Lascar Vorel" Art Gallery, Piatra Neamt.

2022 - Group Exhibition, Cupola Public Library, Piatra Neamt.

2021 - Group Exhibition, Rawissant, Piatra Neamt.

2019 - Group Exhibition, Sestri Art Gallery, Piatra Neamt.

2018 - Group Exhibition of Photography "Time" RotarAct Club, Rotary International / District 2241, Romania.

2017 - Group Exhibition "City Days" Piatra Neamt.

2015 - Group Exhibition "City Days" Piatra Neamt.

2009 - Group exhibition "Human Art Expo", April 2009, Jurmala, Latvia.

2009 - Artist-in-Residence, Camac - Centre D'Art, February 20-March 20, Marney sur Seine, France.

2009 - Group exhibition, "Vii si Vie", February - March 2009, "George Apostu" Cultural Center, Bacau.

2008 - Group exhibition, "Human Art Expo", Bucharest, December 17, 2008, Romania.

2008 - Group exhibition, "Salonul de iarna", UAP-Neamt Gallery, December 15, Piatra Neamt, Romania.

2008 - Group exhibition, "Next Step", Gabrichidze Gallery, September 20, Brussels, Belgium.

2008 - Group exhibition, "Lights - Shadows", 12.08 - 01.10 2008, "7 Pietre" Gallery, Piatra Neamt.

2008 - Personal exhibition, "Dialogues in black and white" at the Piatra Neamt Local Council.

2008 - Group exhibition, "Behind the Sign", 19.03 - 29.03 2008, Venice, Italy.

2007 - Group exhibition with members of the Artists' Union of Romania, "Victor Brauner" Gallery, Piatra Neamt.

2006 - Illustration of a poetry book for HotMetalPress / South Carolina / USA.

http://www.hotmetalpress.net/Mihai-Willitts.html

2006 - Group exhibition for "City Days" - City Hall - Piatra Neamt.

2006 - Group exhibition at the "Vert" Gallery, Piatra Neamt.

2002 - Two photographic works exhibited at the Visual Art Salon - Piatra Neamt.

2001 - Winner of the 1st Prize for Photographic Art at the 5th edition of the "Fotogeografica" National Photography Contest.

2001 - Photojournalist for the "Impreuna" magazine edited by the non-governmental

organizations CSE Amonit and CEC Outopos.

2000 - Active member of the YMCA - Piatra Neamt (many "photo sessions" in community and school institutions).

1997 - Present with photographic works in all non-governmental

publications of the "Amonit" organization.

1996 - Personal exhibition in the "Ceahlău" newspaper.

1995 - Personal exhibition - "Lascar Vorel" Gallery.