About Corina


Vibrant self-portrait blending vintage Vogue style with playful charm, featuring colorful flowers, a bird, and joyful expression.


👩🎨 About the Artist


Corina Ioana is a Romanian-American contemporary artist and photographer based in California, originally from Transylvania. Her multidisciplinary practice spans abstract painting, mixed media, sculpture, and photography, creating immersive, emotionally resonant work rooted in transformation, resilience, and raw beauty.

Known for richly textured surfaces and the use of natural materials—including sand, pebbles, wood, moss, cement, jute, cotton, molding paste, and glass—Corina’s work feels both ancient and immediate. Bold yet vulnerable, expressive yet restrained, each piece invites the viewer into an emotional experience: a feeling, a memory, a quiet moment of reflection.

Her photographic practice—both analog and digital—explores intimate connections to nature and the human form, while her abstract paintings and mixed media collections expand her exploration of color, form, and emotion into new dimensions.

Corina’s work has been exhibited nationally, featured in juried exhibitions, and published internationally. Through her creative studio, Corinafoto, she develops cohesive bodies of work designed for private collectors, contemporary interiors, hospitality environments, and commercial spaces in San Francisco, New York, and beyond.

Artist Statement

I create to connect—with emotion, with memory, with the invisible.

My work lives at the intersection of abstract painting, photography, and mixed media, where layered textures, organic materials, and intuitive mark-making express what words often cannot.

Every piece is grounded in nature. I work with elemental materials—sand, rocks, wood, moss, cement, jute, glass—not only for their physical presence, but for their meaning. These fragments of the earth carry their own histories and become part of a larger narrative. My process is intuitive and physical, driven by curiosity and a desire to explore what lies beneath the surface—of ourselves, of the moment, of the world.

Each work is both a question and an offering.
A pause. A breath. A shift.

I don’t create for perfection.
I create for presence—for something that doesn’t just hang on the wall, but lingers. Something bold, raw, and alive.

Current Series/Collections

Validation Is for Parking
Raw, bold, unapologetic abstraction—works that speak in texture, gesture, and emotion.

Echos: Tension & Light
Exploring energy, motion, and cosmic resonance through layered, tactile acrylics and luminous surfaces. From the vertical pulses of The Signal Beneath I & II to the swirling radiance of Spirit Aurora I & II, this series celebrates the dialogue between stillness and motion, chaos and harmony.

Fragments
Unearthed beauty in weathered, buried, and rediscovered forms. Textured acrylics layered with jute, sand, stone, and wood evoke archaeology, erosion, and preservation—works that feel like tactile relics of time and memory.

Luminous Becoming
Exploring transformation through sculptural surfaces and reflective materials. Gold leaf, glass, epoxy, and carved wood interact with light, creating dimensional, tactile works that balance emergence, luminosity, and structure.

Structural Presence
Where architecture meets abstraction: layered acrylic, stone, and sand create sculptural surfaces evoking foundations, facades, and quiet structural strength—minimal in palette, powerful in presence.

Strata
Layered abstraction inspired by geology and constructed landscapes. Jute, cement, sand, stone, and reclaimed elements create textured reliefs that explore erosion, permanence, and the dialogue between earth and architecture.

Pop Art – Original Mixed Media
A bold celebration of glamour, attitude, and feminine power. Vibrant colors and layered surfaces transform modern divas into playful, provocative, and unforgettable icons.

Nature Infused
Limited edition abstract photography inspired by the wild beauty of the natural world. These pieces bring the outdoors in—art that breathes, calms, and connects.

Femme Fatale
A captivating collection of female portraits intertwined with delicate floral motifs. Bold, resilient, and empowering, these artworks celebrate strength and beauty, adding a striking and elegant presence to any space. Limited edition prints, signed and certified.

Splash of Magic
Bring vibrant energy and color into your home with this lively collection of abstract art prints. Bursting with dynamic movement and rich hues, these works brighten modern interiors and spark conversation. Limited to 25 prints per piece, each with a Certificate of Authenticity.

🖼️ Exhibitions & Recognition

Selected Group & Solo Exhibitions, Awards & Publications

2026

  • February – Bronze Medal, Photography, Camelback Gallery ("Where Love Flies")
  • January – Finalist, Shades of Blue 2026, Camelback Gallery ("Drift Above the Blue”)
  • January – Published in Artistonish Magazine, 65th Edition Issue - December 2025 ("The Signal Beneath)
  • January -Group Exhibition, The Healing Power of Color 2026, curated by Renee Phillips (Dot Language)

2025

  • October – Grand Opening Exhibition, Stuff by Luxe, San Francisco, CA (34 large-scale pieces)

  • September – Art Explosion Open Studios, San Francisco, CA (25 large-scale works)

  • September – Finalist, Best in Medium 2025, Camelback Gallery ("Golden Passage of Becoming")

  • August – Validation Is For Parking selected for HerStory 2025 Invitational, Manhattan Arts International

  • July – Pancakes & Booze Art Show, San Francisco – featured five new mixed media pop-up pieces

  • June – Nominated Artist of the Month, Camelback Gallery ("Midnight Bloom")

  • April – Open Studios, Art Explosion Studios, San Francisco, CA

  • March – Exhibitor, Superfine Art Fair, San Francisco

2024

  • December – Bronze Medal, My Best Work of 2024, Camelback Gallery ("Colors of the Spirit")

  • May – Forum Literary Magazine, San Francisco – featured four artworks
      – "Girl on Fire" chosen as cover art

2023

  • December – Finalist, All Abstracts 2023, Camelback Gallery ("Chaotic Pixel Symphony")

  • December – Artist of the Month nominee, Camelback Gallery ("Geometric Wonderland")

  • December – Finalist, TopArtAwards International, ("Timeless Reflections")

  • November – Artist of the Month nominee, Camelback Gallery ("Path of Enlightenment")

  • July – Art review by Renee Phillips, Manhattan Arts International
      – Described as “extraordinary talent” with a “transformative vision”

Earlier Exhibitions & Publications

  • 2018 – Don’t Like Blah, Just Wow, Encinitas Civic Art Center, CA

  • 2017 – Solo Exhibition, Jana’s RedRoom Gallery, Las Vegas, NV

  • 2008 – Featured in Photography Vibes – Best of Edition for “Body” and “Wild Beauty”