On Love
Opening Reception: April 10 - May 30, 2026
April 10, 5:00 - 7:00 PM Free
Artist Talk: Daniela Groza Pop and Ioana Groza Pop in conversation with Laura Heyman
April 11, 1:00-3:00PM Free
In On Love Daniela Groza Pop and Ioana Groza Pop invite the viewer into their life together to have a conversation about the need for trust and care. This need that exists for the artists in direct relationship to the country they live in, Romania – a country that hasn’t yet recognized queer citizens as full citizens. The artists consider themselves queer visual activists who assume the responsibility of depicting joy and love by way of self-portraiture, showing us that in addition to the uphill battle for recognition, queer lives are varied and beautiful.
Throughout the series, which was made over several years, Daniela and Ioana Groza Pop photograph each other working, eating, sleeping and playing. Handing the camera back and forth, the artists reject the idea of ‘subjects’ and demand viewers look at them as they look at each other – with love.
The images are made in a variety of modes, present throughout the history of photography and the emotional tone of the work ranges from humor to pathos, to quiet introspection, to joy. Certain images, like the one of the couple in bed on the phone and spitting water, nod to the work of iconic artists like Nan Goldin, who displays a similar range of emotional and aesthetic exploration in her own practice.
Vulnerability is a key element in the way the artists approach the concept of intersectional joy. Humor, pleasurable actions and distractions, the meaning of play & queer coding, these are all tools through which they seek to engage an audience to think about ways in which we can restructure the more serious tones of our collective work.
Ultimately, the artists are using self-portraiture as a complete source of information that gives up beautifully and gently the desire to exploit narratives that don’t belong to the self, by enshrining the self in a socio-political and cultural landscape away from the dangerous idea that artists and their art are separate entities.
The frankly intimate images the Daniela and Ioana Groza Pop make of their relationship ask us to think about what queer representation and self-representation has looked like over the last century in photography and cinema. Their hope is that On Love makes clear that what is behind the camera and what is in front of it matter equally. Every image in the series was made with love and enthusiasm – for the craft and for each other, without exception.
Daniela Groza Pop, (1983 in Constanța, RO), is a non-binary visual artist based in Romania and the U.S. She studied art and Italian philosophy at UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, and documentary photography at Florence University of the Arts, Florence, IT. Groza Pop’s work has been exhibited in Tables, Epicentru Gallery, Constanța, RO; Lost and Found, LA Center for Photography, Los Angeles, CA; Women With A Camera, Casa Presei Libere, Bucharest, Romania, Human All Too Human, NYU Kimmel Galleries, NY, NY, That Used To Be Us, Haw Contemporary, Kansas City, MO and Transylvania Photography Festival, Transylvania, RO. Groza Pop's work has been reviewed in profiled in CUTRA, The Daring, Scena9, INFLUX and Elle Magazine Romania.
Ioana Groza Pop (b. 1994, Tîrgu Mureș), lives and works in Cluj, Romania. She received her MFA in Documentary Filmmaking from Babes-Bolyai University. Groza Pop's cinematography and editing has appeared in Gimi Is Not in the Film and To Be (e) or Not to Be. Her photography has been exhibited at WE ARE HERE, ArtHub, Bucharest, RO, Queer Bodies, Transylvania Queer Art, Cluj-Napoca, RO and Casa Presei Libere, Bucharest, RO. Groza Pop's work has been profiled in Photography INFLUX and Photo Vogue.