The exhibition includes 37 watercolors with sizes between 30 and 50 cm, painted in 2019-22
I have repeatedly acted as curator of Nikolay Petkov’s exhibitions, which has put me in the position of a viewer who questions the artist about the meaning of various elements of the image and the meaning of the given title of the work. I have been amazed by the fact that he always disposes of an inexhaustible supply of interpretations (sometimes dozens) and specific complex narratives, encoded in, at first glance, seemingly absolutely unpromising to the imagination, empty and mute images. Many of the artists I know are usually afraid that viewers might misread their works or devalue them perceptually with stereotypical and perverse associations. Petkov is an artist who shifts the focus from the final image to the process of drawing itself, time and autonomous behavior and exploration of the limits and possibilities of the medium itself.
In the context of my “transtemporal aesthetics,” which requires the work of art to acquire an independent temporal existence, I am tempted to view Petkov’s paintings not only as formal, substantive, and temporal paradoxes, but as transtemporal objects that are freed to exist in their own, inhuman temporal mode, intertwining past, present, and future in a radical way. Petkov typically exhibits his works in public space years after their creation. Thus exhibited years later, the paintings act as “warning letters never sent.” This asynchronous collision of temporal layers is a pure manifestation of transtemporality – the works have generated prophetic meanings outside the context of their linear creation.
In the current exhibition “Big Pictures”, through which the artist ironically offers us alternatives to the missing “big picture”, titles are used that seem to come directly from global political and media jargon. Titles such as “Snow and Concrete”, “End of War”, “Crossing”, “Red Line”, “Next Spring” or “Force Majeure” carry the tension of loud and politically charged phrases that stand strangely under the quiet, semi-abstract watercolors. Petkov deconstructs political language by contrasting it with the fragility and loneliness of pure visual form. Political narratives usually try to control the present moment and draw utopian or dystopian horizons. However, Petkov’s paintings work with a disrupted temporal linearity. Works painted in one context (for example, before a global pandemic or war) acquire a prophetic, critical meaning years later, when they are exhibited to the public. This transtemporal collision shows that his painting thinks about the “big picture” of time in a much deeper way than conjunctural political chronicle.
INVITATION
About the artist
Born 1967 in Vratza. Finished Fine Arts high school in Sofia in 1986. Graduated M. F. A., 1994 in National Art Academy, Sofia, Department Mural Painting. 1995-6 studied Art History and Art Theory with prof. Allen David and prof. John Moore at The New School for Social Research, New York. Ph. D., 2010, National Art Academy, Department Art History, dissertation Painting picture in the second half of the 20th Century – visual parameters and cultural grounds. Interpretation of the Western experience and Bulgarian art practice and theory.
Solo exhibitions: First one, 1994, Sofia, Boyana church gallery; Sssentiments, 1997, Sofia, Arena gallery; Recreation Zone, 1998, Sofia, Arena; Geometry/ Sensibility, 1999, Varna, Areta gallery; Projections, 1999, Sofia, Irida gallery; Oil, 2000, Sofia, Irida; Points, 2001, Sofia, Tzar Osvoboditel 6 gallery; Surfaces, 2001, Sofia, XXL gallery; Eleven works, 2002, New York, Flux Factory; Pauses, 2002, Sofia, XXL; On Boudoir, 2002, Sofia, XXL; Orders, 2003, Sofia, Ikar gallery; Chamber Exhibition, 2004, New York, Flux Factory; Chamber exhibition, 2005, Sofia, National Art Gallery; Notes on the margin, 2006, Sofia, Irida; Epical Abstraction, 2008, Sofia, Sofia press gallery; Slow brush, 2010, Sofia, Sofia press; Studies, 2011, Sofia, Arosita gallery; Responses, 2012, Sofia, Arosita gallery; Figure -Ground, 2013, Sofia, Arosita gallery; Motives, 2014, Sofia, Arosita gallery; Gray area, 2015, Sofia, Arosita gallery; Couples, 2016, Sofia, Arosita gallery; A Small time Back-door Plain air Exhibition, 2017, New London, Connecticut, Griffis Art Center; Figures, 2018, Sofia, Arosita gallery; Slav suite, 2020, Sofia, Arosita gallery; Samples, 2021, Sofia, Arosita gallery; Elements, 2022, Sofia, Arosita gallery; Silent mode, 2023, Sofia, Arosita gallery.
Participation in group exhibitions: 10х5х3, 2003, Sofia; I International Biennial for contemporary art, Shumen, 2004; Beyond paper, 2004, Dobritch; Support systems, 2005, Sliven; Contemporary Art from Bulgaria, 2006, Nish, Serbia; 10х5х3-2, 2006, Sofia; nomination for M-tel Awards for Contemporary Bulgarian art 2006, Sofia; nomination for National Award Allianz Bulgaria for Painting, Sculpture and Graphics 2008, Sofia; Two Brothers. Contemporary Bulgarian and Slovak Painting, 2009, Bratislava, Sofia; 10x5x3-3, 2010, Sofia; Zone Urban, 2011, Sofia; Idea of Home/ Library, 2012, Sofia; Untold Abstraction, 2014,Sofia; What Happened?, 2014, Sofia; Color, Sound, Movement, 2015, Sofia, Credo Bonum gallery; Sofia Underground/ Common Ground, 2017, Sofia, Arosita gallery; Orthogonal 16, 2017, Sofia, Red House; Contemporary Painting, 2017, Art center Bankia, Sofia; The Debate on Reality, 2017, Sofia; Orthogonal 18, 2018, IKKP Kumsthaus, Rehau; Minimalism – BG, 2020, Sofia; The Invisible, 2020, Raiko Alexiev gallery, Sofia.