The works in this exhibition are a continuation of Kalina Dimitrova’s preoccupations with what she calls “phantom images” – a problem that the author works on in her latest projects. With the exception of one of the objects, which transfers the thread from the previous project to this one, the works are shown for the first time in front of a public
The visible has been an object of interest for artists since at least the Renaissance to the present day. In the 17th century, Dutch painters attempted to achieve naturalistic accuracy in recreating reality as perceived by the eye, anticipating and developing techniques and technologies that eventually led to the discovery of photography.
The current series “Phantoms III” presents photorealistic scenes framed only in part, half, fragmentarily. The play of light and shadow on the surface of the canvas is continued by transparent plastics from Plexiglas, both reflective and reflecting in everything around. The imagination is invited to finish what the hand has begun.
The transparent material carries an illusory image of clarity, but its elusive boundaries and multiple reflections make us question what we see. The visible and the familiar become a mirage. The boundaries between fact and fantasy blur and shake the certainty of perception that always tends to make the world a familiar place. The series of works offers a double vision – between the visible, conditionally imposed in the course of history on the one hand and the lack of distance to the events of today and the difficulty to form a clear picture of the processes that are happening at the moment.
An old log found in the forest is the second highlight of the exhibition. In the places where roots once branched, melted by time, Plexiglas replicas of the lost real body parts now take hold. Phantom continuations of a past existence.
Installation view
About the artist
Kalina Dimitrova was born in 1975 in Gabrovo. In 2001 she graduated from the National Academy of Fine Arts, Sofia, with a degree in Mural Painting. She lives and works in Sofia. Among her solo exhibitions are “Star Skins and Phantoms”, Harta Gallery, Sofia, 2023; “Eternal Return”, Punta Gallery, Sofia, 2023; “Phantoms” III, Collect Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey, 2023; “Phantoms” II, Credo Box, Credo Bonum Gallery, Sofia, 2023; “Fleeings”, Charta Gallery, Sofia, 2022; “01100011 01101000 01110010 011101001 01110011 01110100 01101101 01100001 01110011”*, +359 Gallery, Sofia, 2020; “Biophilia”, Credo Bonum Gallery, Sofia, 2020; “Hidden Life”, Gallery “Gallery”, Sofia, 2020; “Newer and newer waters flow into those that have already flowed into the same rivers”, +359 Gallery, Sofia, 2018; “The Last 5 Years”, Vaska Emanuilova Gallery, Sofia, 2010.
Participates in numerous group projects, including “Programmed Traces” Yarat, Baku, 2026; Edirne Bienali, Edirne, 2026; National Autumn Exhibitions, Plovdiv, 2025; “Artefactual Nature”, Roam, Berlin, 2025; “Time Twisted Around a Place Twisted Around Time”, Credo Bonum Gallery, Sofia, 2025; “Cow Egg, Hen Milk”, Dobrich Art Gallery, 2024; “Bios Polis”, Station Contemporary Art Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia; “Jean Claude for Beginners”, Sarieva Gallery, Plovdiv, 2022; “Art Meets Golf”, St. Oswald Golf Club, Freistadt, Austria, 2022; Check In, Collect Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey, 2022; “To Collect Contemporary Art, Vladimir Iliev Collection”, National Art Gallery, Sofia, 2021; “The Herbarium as a Storage Place for Ideas”, Sofia Arsenal-Museum of Contemporary Art, Sofia, 2021; “The Invisible. Visualizations Beyond Memory, Imagination and Simulated Reality”, Rayko Alexiev Gallery, 2020; “The Image is No Longer Available”, ICA-Sofia, 2017; “Fragmented Stories”, Der Verein Berliner Künstler, Berlin, 2017; Summer Summery, Credo Bonum Gallery, Sofia, 2016; Vienna Contemporary – Focus Bulgaria, Vienna, Austria, 2015;