Iosif Derecichei

Born in 1962 in Transylvania, Romania, Iosif trained at Ion Andreescu Art University. His early impressionistic landscapes evolved into semi-abstract and abstract impressionist works, reflecting his native region’s rural imagery. After 1989, he exhibited widely across Europe and beyond. Since relocating to Canada in 2004, Iosif continues to explore memory and place through layered abstraction. He is represented by Koyman Galleries in Ottawa.Iosif was born on October 8, 1962 in Marghita, a small city in the historic region of Transylvania in western Romania – perhaps best known throughout the world as the setting for the historical gothic novel Dracula.

As a child he found that drawing was something that came naturally and he could sketch with ease anything he saw. His love of visual expression continued from then on and he graduated with a Bachelor of Art degree from the Ion Andreescu Art University in Romania several years later.

His early work was often done outdoors in an impressionistic style but as time passed the work eventually veered toward semi-abstraction and abstract impressionism. Today, his paintings still carry the fingerprint of the places where he was born, of familiar villages between the hills with their poppy fields and sunflowers.

After the regime change in Romania in 1989, it became possible for him to exhibit his paintings abroad. He began collaborations with galleries in Hungary, having many exhibitions in the cities of Budapest, Debrecen and Keszthely. In addition to Hungary and Romania, his permanent collaboration with Koncz Gallery and Hungallery, his art was presented in exhibitions in Western Europe, Japan and the USA.

In 2004 he moved to Canada and had his first solo exhibition in Windsor, Ontario in June, 2006. Iosif is represented in Ottawa, Ontario by Koyman Galleries.