ALA BALA

I dare say that sincerity is fundamental to Boris Kolev’s artistic practice. Whether we consider his figurative painting, which explores the oppressive everyday and the absurdities of the external world, or turn our attention to his earlier introspective abstract canvases, the openness of his thoughts and consciousness remains undeniable. This honesty of expression becomes even more striking when we look at his drawings, because as a medium, drawing possesses both the advantage and the limitation of being primarily perceived as a “stage” or, in the classical sense, as preparation for, or something preceding, “great art.” Yet, critically considered, this perception is ambivalent, because the seemingly reduced density of the image, this “skeleton” of three-dimensional objects, most clearly reveals the presence of fundamental artistic skills and, in many cases, exposes authenticity without concealing the raw, candid temperament of the artist beneath layers of carmine and ultramarine.

This is why drawing is not a preferred form for every artist – it is a litmus test in which aesthetic attitudes and mastery of line become clearly visible, as do the artist’s experimental, bold or timid, conceptual or unconceptual temperament and intellect. Therefore, making drawings means stepping onto thin ice, especially after Georg Baselitz, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, and the new German art of the second half of the twentieth century radically rethought the notion of drawing as an autonomous and, above all, intellectual medium. In this context, the drawings presented here are not additional sketches for a painting series; there is no accidental quality to them. Instead, they embody precisely this renewed approach to drawing – large formats, meticulously constructed deep frames and glass surfaces – demonstrating the artist’s profound knowledge of art history and his high level of artistic culture.

Boris Kolev, an artist well known for his northern sensibility and uncompromising moral and political stance, presents in the exhibition Ala-Bala twelve indictments of the two-dimensional human being – a figure who primarily consumes, imitates icons from television and social media, experiences joy and suffering through the clichés developed by capitalist culture, and above all succumbs to frivolity. In relation to his entire body of work, I believe that he places frivolity among the fundamental causes of intellectual decay, and I am convinced that this powerful and uncompromising expressionist series is the result of the same impulse.

Where, then, can we position this exhibition within the broader global context of his work? Almost a decade ago, Boris Kolev shared with me his view that there are two types of artists – those engaged with the world around them and those concerned exclusively with their inner world. It is interesting that his practice in recent years has gradually dissolved the boundaries of this categorical distinction, and in the drawings presented here we encounter a considered, deeply refined and at times almost abstract visual language, which in no way refers to the objective, the concrete, or the immediately topical, but instead expresses, in a profound manner, an intellectual vision that precedes physical perception.

Regardless of these nuances, he remains an artist fully engaged with the spirit of his time – whether through drawing, installation, or painting. There are no historical compositions here, yet I cannot claim that an understanding of his work excludes his engagement with history and with events of the recent past, especially those that continue to resonate in the present. For this reason, the drawings are also highly emotional – they are personal, seemingly humorous, yet they reveal the anxieties not only of the artist, but of Boris Kolev as a person, compelled to live in a reality that corresponds to the feuilleton-like definition of “ala-bala.”

Ivan Stefanov