Maria Nalbantova

Biography

Maria Nalbantova (b.1990, Sofia, Bulgaria) is a visual artist who works in the field of contemporary art, experimenting with various media and techniques such as drawing, collage, found objects, installation, video and photography.

Her solo shows include: "Bookmarks (New York)" (2022), pop-up exhibition, Residency Unlimited, New York; "Post-tools" (2021-2022), curated by Viktoria Draganova, foryouandyourcustomers, Sofia, BG; "A Good Deal" (2021), UniCredit Studio, Sofia, BG; "Drought" (2021), Intro Gallery, Sofia, BG; "hybrid-pure" (2020), Sariev Gallery, Plovdiv, BG; "Weather Forecast" (2018), curated by Daniela Radeva, Vaska Emanouilova Gallery, Sofia, BG.

Selected recent group exhibitions include: "Sedimentation" (2021), curated by Veronika Čechová, AVU Gallery, Prague, CZ; "US and THEM" (2021), curated by Nathalie Hoyos and Rainald Schumacher, Kapanа Gallery, Plovdiv, BG; "In Defence of Solid Material" (2021), curated by Vesselina Sarieva, Sarieva, Plovdiv, BG; "The Possible Institution" (2021), curated by Viktoria Draganova, Swimming Pool, Sofia, BG; "The herbarium as a place for storing ideas" (2021), curated by Irina Batkova, Sofia Arsenal – Museum of Contemporary Art, National Gallery, Sofia, BG; "InSitu-Institute" (2020), Institute of Contemporary Art – Sofia; "ReForget Your Past" (2019), curated by Nikola Mihov, Contemporary space, Varna; "Good Mirrors Are Not Cheap" (2019), curated by Chiara Cartuccia, Goethe-Institut Bulgaria; "The Goods of Time" (2019), curated by Anastasya Skvortsova, Goethe-Institut Bulgaria; "Interconnection: On Bodies of Water" (2019), curated by Veronika Čechová and Tereza Jindrová, Swimming Pool Gallery, Sofia

About

In her artistic practice, she explores the topic of hygiene that spans beyond the body and inhabits the territories of the human mind. In addition, she seeks to construct a speculative reality where nature and the artificial intertwine, foregrounding critical social, political and environmental issues. Very often she works with found objects and all the traces of time they carry.Maria Nalbantova was an artist in residence at Residency Unlimited in New York in March-April 2022 as a winner of the BAZA Award for contemporary art (Bulgaria) in 2020. In 2021 she was granted a scholarship at the International Summer Academy of Fine Arts in Salzburg, Austria. At the beginning of 2020 she was selected by the Sariev Gallery in Plovdiv after an open call, to transform the gallery space into her studio for a month, resulting in her solo exhibition “hybrid-pure”. She won the special young visual artist award of Stoyan Kambarev Foundation in 2020. Her works are part of the collection of Sofia City Art Gallery and private collections.

Gallery

Maria Nalbantova

Post-tools, 2021.

Installation

Details

  • Photographer: Yana Lozeva
  • Description: "For the series “Post-Tools” / „Оръдия на труда“, Nalbantova deploys carefully sought out well-used work tools that were found on flea markets or in antique stores and which she configures in various forms and interactions. They supposedly oppose labour in the digital domain and the accompanying dematerialization, recalling not only the history archived in the objects, but also the significance of the touch sealed in the traces on them.
    The Bulgarian title of the series, literary translatable as “arms of labour”, directs us once more to a person’s own responsibility; in the end, the specific usage and meaning of an object depends on us. In the office, Nalbantova also creates an environment of hybrid plants – a clear contrast to the industrially produced objects that raises questions of our paradoxical attitude towards nature."

    Exhibition by Maria Nalbantova
    Curator: Viktoria Draganova
    Place: foryouandyourcustomers
    Sofia, 1 Pozitano Sqr., Level 1, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria
  • Copyright: Maria Nalbantova
  • References: https://foryouandyourcustomers.com/sofia-en/44-exhibition-sofia/?lang=en

Maria Nalbantova

Drought, 2021.

Installation

Details

  • Photographer: František Svatoš
  • Material: video 8:18 min, metal water pipes, white tiles with factory defects, soap, ingredients taken from the environment
  • Copyright: Maria Nalbantova

Maria Nalbantova

A Good Deal, 2021.

Site-specific

Details

  • Photographer: Yana Lozeva
  • Material: soap, water, pigments
  • Description: A Good Deal is a site-specific installation using the ‘soap painting’ technique and created by the visual artist Maria Nalbantova for the space of UniCredit Studio.

    Where is the place of the artist in the market economy today? What are the possible conditions for negotiating art? In the context of contemporary art, what does a good deal mean? These are some of the questions that are being asked through the artwork A Good Deal.

    The mirror wall in UniCredit Studio has been transformed into a ‘canvas’ on which the artist paints with melted soap, sponges and water. The applied soap is deeply layered, forming frozen foam bubbles here and there. Through seven gaps and a few cracks we can see our mirror image becoming part of the picture. The sound of withdrawn cash from next-door ATMs becomes the natural soundtrack of the installation.
  • Copyright: Maria Nalbantova

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