Artist Profile | Cartoon & Caricature

Gabriel Rusu

Gabriel Rusu is a cartoonist, graphic designer and set designer who was born on August 24, 1969 in Sărmașu, Mures County. At the age of 14 he settled in Târgu-Mureș, where he graduated from a secondary school with a specialty in sculpture, and then attended the Tîrgu Mureș University of Arts, in the scenography section. He works in the area of plastic artists in Romania, Advertising Graphics section. From the age of 4 he began to draw, a talent inherited from his father. The first caricature of him was made during the gymnasium trying to satirize his classmates and teachers. The first publication he made of his caricatures was in the magazines and newspapers “Gazeta de Mureș”, “Mureșene”, “Express Journal”, “Mureș Information”, “Gazette de Mureș”, “Total Information”, “Día”, “ Romania Magyar Szo”, “Forest and Life”, “Diario” and “Of Corso”. Many of his caricatures have been published in newspapers and magazines abroad. In addition to cartoons, he has demonstrated his graphics skills for book covers, comics, advertising graphics, posters and calendars. In 2001, Gabriel Rusu was the author of the graphic presentation of the Festival of Contemporary French Dramaturgy "Face à Face", organized by the Tg-Mureş National Theater, the French Institute of Bucharest and the French Embassy in Romania. In 2004 he founded a monthly cartoon magazine titled "Passepartout" together with journalist Mugur Gorea, at that time Mureş correspondent of the newspaper Cotidianul, and in 2005 he became president of the Passepartout International Satirical Graphic Exhibition in Targu-Mures . Gabriel Rusu is an artist with an enviable career, participating in dozens of exhibitions and international caricature exhibitions in more than 25 countries on 5 continents. Starting with Poland, Croatia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Italy, Slovakia, Portugal, Macedonia, Sweden and continuing through countries such as Turkey, Syria, Mexico, India, Korea, Japan and China, the artist has represented Romania with all the meridians of the world . Gabriel Rusu also won First Place in the XXVI edition of the Trento-Italy International Satire and Humor Contest, 2018 edition, in the comic section, a prize with weight in the world of cartoons. He is an exceptional cartoonist, with an incredible sense of irony, who manages to express and outline satire in a simple and relevant way. He skillfully balances between the caricature of the gag, content and the press, something closer to the graphic, more metaphorical, less cartoonish in the line and more polysemic in the message. Under these conditions, his mood becomes less jubilant, focusing more on a facet involved in intellectual problems. The artist's favorite themes explore both the concretion of reality and organic and constructive representations, which ensure permanent contact with great knowledge and insertion into the present. Whether they are inspired by the socio-political environment, everyday life or the imaginings of his imagination; Gabriel Rusu's cartoons have a special plastic quality, revealing to the eye an original, almost theatrical graphics, with a stylistic and visually refined style. On the part of the artist, the synthetic force of the drawing, as well as the intensity of the expression, is given, in many cases, by the use of the hidden watercolor technique. Endowed with a high coefficient of introspection, the artist uses the colors of water, convinced by the communication power of watercolor, with a freedom that preserves spontaneity. Thus, Elaborate and thoughtful, Gabriel Rusu is, without a doubt, one of the important representatives of contemporary satirical graphics in Romania. An artist with an impressive national and international reputation who gives us the eyes of the soul and the heart, smile, delight and above all thought, that is what only true art can give.