Ans Azura is a highly curated digital platform offering fresh-to-market, museum quality works by renowned and emerging artists, where the next generation of collectors can engage with art and learn about collecting.

Our team of experts, with extensive experience and a strong reputation for ethical business practices, value quality above all else and are committed to presenting only the highest quality works.

Here, at Ans Azura, we believe in the importance of art of the Middle East and Central and Eastern Europe and want to support a flourishing ecosystem nurturing its appreciation and collection value.

Our team

We are an experienced team of international gallerists, art historians, advisors and regional art experts. All of us are passionate about increasing transparency and access in the art world.

Suzana Vasilescu

is a Romanian art historian, curator, gallerist and art advisor. She is the Founder and Director of SUPRAINFINIT, a contemporary art gallery in Bucharest, and is the curator and art advisor for important private art collections in Eastern Europe and Middle East. She is also a member of the board and the acquisition committee of the Museum of Recent Art—the first private art museum opened in the last century in Romania—which collects and exhibits Romanian art from 1965 to the present.

Prior to launching her own gallery (in 2015) and Ans Azura (2021), she was leading efforts to establish and cultivate the art ecosystem in Eastern Europe through leadership and curatorial roles at auction houses, galleries, and biennials. During her tenure at Artmark Auction House (2009 - 2012), the leading auction house in Romania, Suzana Vasilescu led the department of Post-modern and Contemporary Art and organized the first post-modern and contemporary art auction in the country. In 2015, she was the director of the first edition of ‘Art Encounters Biennale’, which took place in Timisoara and has been a milestone in the art context of Romania. Prior to that (2012-2015), she was the Director of the contemporary art gallery, Nicodim Gallery.  

She graduated with a BA in Art History and an MBA at ASEBUSS School of Business Management, the most prestigious Romanian business school.

Andreea Stanculeanu

is a Romanian art advisor and cultural manager, founder of the Sector 1 Contemporary Art Gallery. A graduate of International Business and Trade at the Faculty of International Economic Relations at ASE Bucharest, she has an experience of over 20 years in international business and film production. From 2017 Andreea has primarily focused on following her lifelong passion and opened Sector 1 Gallery, becoming a heard voice on the contemporary art scene in Romania. Through a series of curatorial projects based on the artistic phenomenon coming out of the strong Cluj art scene, the representation of post-avantgarde historical Romanian artists and an international programme focused primarily on CEE artists, Andreea has become part of a network of advisors for relevant East European collections.

Robert Viiu

graduated with a BA in Conservation and Restauration at the National University of Art in Bucharest. Robert has over 7 years of experience in logistic and project management in big companies like Universum Events. In the last 5 year he was involved in operational management for different art galleries and museums in Romania. Starting 2013 he was also a trainer and facilitator for over 300 events in different areas like IT, bank, energy industry. Since 2020 he is the Operations Manager of Ans Azura where he is a key part of the management team in charge with organizational processes.

Auctioneer

Tom Best

is a professional auctioneer, founder of The Auction.Collective and art adviser specialising in artworks from 1860 to now. Following a Masters degree in Art History from St Andrew’s University, Tom started his career at Christie’s Auction House as a Specialist in Impressionist & Modern art then later Post-War & Contemporary art – he was one of the youngest auctioneers to take to a Christie’s rostrum. In 2020 Tom was recognised as a Spears 500 Top Recommended Art Advisor and in 2014 was a finalist in in the Young Turk Awards for Art Adviser of the Year.

Specialists

Tevž Logar

works as an independent curator, editor and writer who collaborates with various galleries and institutions and, as a specialist for Eastern European art, with ANS AZURA. He has curated or co-curated a number of group and solo exhibitions and collaborated with institutions, galleries and publishers, such as: Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Łódź, Poland; The Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy; TBA21, Vienna, Austria; Museum of Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia; Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia; Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka, Croatia; Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary; Mousse Publishing, Milan, Italy; Routledge, New York, USA, and many others. Several timeshe collaborated in projects for La Biennale di Venezia: Pavilion of Republic of North Macedonia (2019, curatorial consultant); Pavilion of Republic of Kosovo (2019, writer); Pavilion of Republic of Slovenia (2013, curator). From 2009 to 2014, he was the artistic director of the Škuc Gallery in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and a lecturer in 20th Century Art History at the Academy of Visual Arts (AVA) in the same city. He was the screenwriter of the full-length documentary Project Cancer: Ulay’s journal from November to November (2013) and is a co-founder of the Ulay Foundation (2014) in Amsterdam, where he now sits as a member of the Advisory Board. In 2014, he was nominated for the Gerrit Lansing Independent Vision Award (Independent Curators International) in New York. He lives in Rijeka, Croatia.

Nathalie Khoury

is currently a member of the executive board of the Beirut Art Center, the first non-for profit art space in Beirut and Regional Director of Ans Azura Middle East.  After studying graphic arts in Paris, Nathalie Khoury moved to Beirut în 1991 where she worked in the fields of communication, graphic design, and accessory design. From 2005 until early 2010, she was the director of the contemporary art gallery Sfeir-Semler in Beirut. In 2011 she was appointed as a consultant for an 8 months mission by l’Academie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts/ALBA to work on a new curriculum for their visual art department.

Vanja Žanko

is a Croatian cultural manager and curator based in Berlin and Vienna, with experience managing cultural organisations and artist studios.    She has most notably worked with artist from Central and Eastern Europe: Lovro Artuković, Yane Calovski, Jasmina Cibic, Igor Eškinja, Hristina Ivanoska, Šejla Kamerić, Julije Knifer, Ivan Kožarić, Kristian Kožul, Adrian Paci, Goran Petercol, Đuro Seder, Tarwuk, and Zlatan Vehabović. Since 2017, she has been working with Olafur Eliasson as his righthand person in his Berlin studio.   Her work includes collaborations with institutions such as Tate Modern London, Kunsthaus Zürich, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, Camera Austria Graz, and the Venice Biennial. Philanthropic foundations include Adris Foundation, Fondation Beyeler, and the Bloomberg Philanthropies.    She was a founding director of the Lauba House Zagreb (2011 - 2014), home to Tomislav Kličko’s collection of Croatian modern and contemporary art (ArtNet Top 100 Collections at the time).   In 2014 she founded a non-profit platform NOMAD Zagreb with a mission to nurture relationships between private and corporate collections with visual artists and art institutions in Central and Eastern Europe. It operates today in Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Vienna and Berlin with a new female leadership team. She is curently the Head of Consignment and Sales of Ans Azura for former Yugoslavian countries.

Bálint Ferenczy

has an MA degree in History of Photography from Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London, as well as a degree in Liberal Arts studied in both Hungary and the United States. He has significant primary and secondary market experience gained working at Sotheby’s London and for several galleries.‍ Bálint’s expertise lies in Hungarian Post-war art, having participated in sourcing and researching artworks for Sotheby’s, and further international private and public collections. For more than two years, Bálint was the London Director, then the Managing Director of Q Contemporary, Hungary’s first private museum focusing on Central and Eastern European Post-war art. Bálint lives between Paris and Budapest, and he is ANS AZURA’s expert for Hungarian art.

Legal Specialists

Selena Stan

Selena is a seasoned business consultant with more than 12 years of experience in advising local and international clients. A “summa cum laude” law graduate, she followed the path from Magic Circle law firm, to in-house counsel, to personal advisor to the shareholders, before co-founding an independent boutique law firm - FIDASmart - in 2016.

Selena offers to the clients an expertise that extends beyond the traditional legal realm: she attended specialized London Business School training on financial management and was involved as project manager in complex legal and tax projects, both at national and international levels.

Starting 2019, Selena has decided to have a closer involvement in business and accepted non-executive positions on the board of several IT companies, both in Romania and abroad.

Izabella Kadar

Izabella is a lawyer in the Bucharest Bar Association. Her current practice focuses on legal matters pertaining to the primary and secondary art market. She holds a degree in law from the West University of Timișoara, Romania and an LL.M. (Master of Laws) in European Law from Leiden University, the Netherlands.