Florin Maxa is a visual artist, known for his abstract works. Having graduated in 1966 from the Ion Andreescu Institute of Fine Arts, now the University of Art and Design, in Cluj-Napoca, Maxa later became head of the painting department and dean of the faculty. He distinguished himself through a modernist style that abandoned the rectangular format of easel painting by proposing new, anamorphic shapes. Suspended objects painted on both sides were another format that he employed, exploiting the traits of the support material. Maxa was a member of the Union of Fine Arts in Romania from 1968 and had solo and group exhibitions in Romania and abroad. As an artist and an intellectual, part of the 1970s-80s generation of artists in Romania, he inflected new life into the local scene, contributing to the formation of neo-avant-garde art in Romania. He received several awards including the 20th Century Award of Achievement in 1992 and the World Intellectual of 1993, Cambridge, England. Among the institutions that hosted his work are the Museum of Art, Cluj-Napoca, the Prague Biennale, Prague, Kampen, the Netherlands, Quadro Gallery, Cluj-Napoca, Frezia Gallery, Dej, Gaudel de Stampa Gallery, Paris, Galeria Nouă, Bucharest. In 2004, he was decorated by the Romanian government with the Order of Cultural Merit in the rank of Grand Officer.