This art exhibit was not like many others. The room is dark and nothing hangs from the walls. The only source of light comes from the strange structures, constantly changing colors, hanging from the ceiling. To some people, these just seem like strange new light fixtures. To others though, they are a beautiful form of art.

Artist Adela Andea is an up-and-coming artist in the contemporary art world. Originating from Romania, Andea received her Master’s of Fine Arts degree from the University of North Texas in Denton, and now lives in Houston with her family. She frequently exhibits throughout the country, and recently brought an exhibit to the University of Texas of the Permian Basin housed in the Charles A. Sorber Visual Arts building in the Nancy Cardozier Gallery.

“My art offers opportunities to investigate the visual significance of the contemporary technologies,” Andea said. “It provides a commentary on the individual interaction, theoretical discussion of the post-traditional self and how certain technologies are embedded in our culture.”

When people think of art, they think of paint, photos, or sculptures. Andea however, chose something a bit more unique to make her art.

“My artistic medium is light,” Andea said. “However such a medium does not exist by itself.”

Andea took squares of recycled plastic and strung them around color changing lights to create an art form like many have never seen.

“My work relies on man-made materials to create artificial environments that suggest “beauty” assigned to the natural landscapes or environments,” Andea said. “My installations insist on the visual transformation of inorganic into organic matter, and the blending of the organic with geometric.”

The visual effects are stunning to say the least, but the artwork carries much more meaning than just looking ‘pretty’.

“The meaning of my work comes from revealing and exposing the role of certain technology in the formation of the person as a cultural framework of the post self, by analyzing this idea in contemporary coordinates, as time and place,” Andea said. “My art investigates not only the implications of consumerism on post constructed self, but the link between culture and individual through the various technologies.”

Associate Professor of Art, Christopher Stanley was excited to have Andea’s work at the University and thinks very highly of her skills.

“For me it’s the very definition of creativity,” Stanley said. “It’s not some elaborate material nobody understands, it’s plastic and fishing line and it’s beautiful.”

Stanley thinks it was great for students to see Andea’s work.

“They need to learn that art doesn’t just come from a tube or a bag,” Stanley said.

As for the students, many have enjoyed Andea’s work.

“There’s something special about seeing something, that when infused with something like creativity that becomes more than the sum of its parts,” Honor student, Sam Dowlen said.

As for Andea, she’s happy to work in a new medium that will hopefully change the way people view the world.

“By revealing the scale of personal expressiveness through new technologies, the aesthetic discourse is questioned by the presence of consumer electronics as an art subject and material,” Andea said. “The self-referential materials allow the viewer to become consumers once again.  As for myself, as an artist, it is a way to escape engrained aesthetics and recharge the art-making process.”