Enter the Portal of Art and Fashion by Anca Irina Lefter

The world of art is so complex that our tiny parts of ourselves try to embrace it all with little steps. The Portal that Anca Irina Lefter, artist and fashion designer, proposes us is like a door to an universe still unknown and yet to be discovered. 

There is so much creative energy in you and I'm interested to know more about it, your story, your relation with art...

Thank you very much for asking. I feel the same about you Andra! To answer your question, my creative energy is driven by passion. My creations come from inspiration, I love to get to know people, I love to travel, I like the contrast between globalisation, different cultures, beliefs and individuality. I think globalisation is a good thing for the economy of our planet, specially if it's sustainable, the development of the same values and perceptions of human kind it's good for us, if slowly we make racism disappear and appreciate the planet and the difference of cultures all over the world  I hope that all humans will protect and respect the nature and the nature of the other people. I believe in the journey of discovering yourself, with our best skills and what ever make you happy and do that , of course by respecting the others instead of following any social status and politically correctness rules of the others. 

I believe in emotions, I think emotions drive us in our life. It's important to treat them seriously and not only superficial. I think that the best trend is the joy and the smile better than any given colour.

My story : Since I was young I have been trained to see beauty in all the little details and, most of all, to know the hearts of people and protect the weak & innocent and love the kind. I always heard "No" when I was young, like: " you can't choose to be an artist, you will starve and suffer, nobody will recognise you and in society, you will not be able to make a loan to buy a house, artist don't really matter." And I think is the exact opposite: the role of artists is to vision and express the beauty all around and to make people cut the differences between people with the creative language of art. I left my parents house when I was 15 to follow my dream; to be an artist and a fashion designer. I studied mural arts in the most serious art school in the capital, Bucharest. In parallel I was working in sales and I started the Business Management University because I always thought is important to know how to present your art and vision. After 6 years in working I raised enough money to go and study in IED Instiututo Europeo di Design in Barcelona and after in Florence and I got a specialisation diploma in leather design in the Leather School in Santa Croce Florence (Italy) learning the old formulas from the masters.

Learning all the time and, mostly, from people with authority in the field, I was  interested in what was very important to me: I love fashion design, art and music. I studied violin and piano when I was young and painting since I was 2 years old. I have a good visual memory and I use it, I always see new exhibitions, museums and I take inspiration from the movements and colours of people and cities.I started with decorative arts to learn the academic rules, then when I was ready for practical art I launched my brand of bags and accessories and leather dresses for stage in 2007. Every collection has a story behind it, in most of them I put music inside and emotions. My signature collection CH2 Vinyls is about freedom, I used the symbol of vinyls because, in the communist period, the music and new ideas were found in the lyrics of the songs as a new code and trend. I live with art everyday, like you.. every design that you wear when you combine it with your everyday life,  without knowing it, it creates art. It's our choice if we make it memorable.

What have been your top collaborations so far?

I was working with people who inspired me. They became my friends and my mentors from different fields, people like David Guetta, Tara McDonald, Inna. Loredana Groza,  Marco Carola, Bill Patrick, Luciano , Navi other top musicians, Owen Fitzpatrick a top international speaker and author. I learned from IED designers and teachers, Dave Phillipson former Ceo Space from USA, from Tony Robbins, Abraham Kicks, Alex Grey, Roy Martina, UFE, Ministry of Economy in Romania, UAP (The union of artists from Romania), NMC Production, Ciprian Strugariu photography, Renaissance Art Gallery ( Artsy) and much more.

Can you tell us more about the F7 project?

F7 was born in the sea side of Cannes in 2018 with Nicole Jutka a Romanian artist from Germany and Radu Goran, a Romanian artist from Nice. We put together 7 Romanian artists to make group exhibitions all over the world. We were thinking it's a good way to express the vision of Romanian contemporary feminine arts and to open the doors of new countries and from there to develop us as individual artists and together in the same time. Did you know that statistically 95% or artists exposed in museums all over the world are man and it's very interesting to see the vision of woman, too. Nicole picked the 7 artists that express different types of art (painters, photo, performance, design, sculpture, etc) and we decided to have 3 exhibition with the same theme La vie en ..Pink in 2019 with the help of our dear friend, the best visionary and connector  Jean Michel Invernizzi from the UFE french association from Romania. We had the first one in the Peasant Museum in Romania in august, the second one it was in one it was in Villeneuve- Loubet  with UFE and ROAZUR in september and we are in contact with the French Institute of Bucharest, to make an exhibition there that will end with a charity auction for Parada NGO (who helps kids living in the street). UFE Roumanie still helps us for that. The artists are:  Nicoleta Jutka (Germany) -  painting, sculpture, video; Irinel Anghel - Performance, music, installation, ; Anca Irina Lefter - conceptual art, design, painting; Dana Dociu-Photo; Maria Butnaru-Photo; Roxana Stingaciu (France)-painting; Johanna Weigel (Germany)-painting 

"For this theme I choose a taboo subject Feminine Cycle to change the perception of woman from Shame to Normality. I exposed 2 paintings: Orgasmic Splash and Feminine Cycle that explains why female have 4 types of moods in every month, because in the ancient cultures has been said that they pass 4 seasons every month so this is why they change the mood depending on witch seasons they are in. And the third one I created a design skirt with tampons on a ballerina, it was a performance where i asked people who is open minded and to test that I gave them a tampon with pink colour on it.
Now our paintings are exposed in the art gallery of  Tennis des Combes in Nice.

You're a fashion designer and an artist, at the same time. How do you mix both? 

Both designs and painting are different tools to express art. I have a little studio in Bucharest opened from 8 am to 5 pm where I create the bags and the leather dresses following the story of my client and usually I am painting at night when everybody is sleeping and there is no distractions.

What do you want to express and transmit through your art?

My goal is to make people connect with themselves even if it's a custom made bag or a painting. Portal Immersive Art experience helps people connect with their inner self  and with nature by using art and then express their emotions on a common canvas. I want people to connect with their inner self is because it's very important, we are always in our minds, we don't listen to our emotions and our bodies, with nature because if we live in cities we forget to connect with nature and painting freely at the end connects you with your creative part and you understand that you are special but in the same time we are one.

I make bags after the story of the client so each bag is his bag, with all the preferences about the colours, textures, inner lines, accessories and so on. A bag that speaks about you, your bag that defines your personality.

Tell us more about your new art line called Portal. Where does the idea come from and what it mean.

I created an immersive experience that is combining different forms of art. Portal came like a puzzle putting together all my life, what I learned about human kindness, love, creativity, harmony, idealisation, joy in an experience, the deepness of the concept was born in New York at COSM, the community of spiritual artists. The idea comes from a lot of study about alchemy, music, video, the study of the 5 elements from nature, 5 senses. I challenge all your 5 senses.

Concepts I express and sell:  Paintings, Bags, Perfumes, ceramics, artistic installation and the artistic experience on Artsy https://www.artsy.net/artist/anca-irina-lefter and on www.portalartexperience.com 

Everything makes you connect with your element.

How do you project yourself in the years to come as an artist and fashion designer? 

We are working on an online platform for Portal Immersive Art, to sell the bags in art museums and contemporary art galleries, I am writing a book, I will be a speaker and make people paint freely on all important festivals all over the world. From december it will expose my bags  in Centre Pompideau in Bruxelles. I have an exhibition of Portal on the top of the mountain in the Sfinks in Bucegi mountains on 28 november. Currently I expose paintings and ceramics in Grasse.

My plan is to make people connect with themselves everywhere in the world with Portal forms of expression, throw fashion designs, ceramics, music, perfumes, different tastes, artistic installation. My aim is for the future to make cultural exchange and with the NGO to build corals and promote talented artists. 

Interview by Andra Oprea