In "This month" section, artnewscafe bulletin offers a wide selection of exhibitions, events, and open calls in the field of contemporary art in Bulgaria – Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Veliko Tarnovo, Kazanlak and in Europe.
The monthly bulletin strives to offer an accessible, thoughtful, and quality information about what’s happening on the Bulgarian and European visual arts stage. artnewscafe bulletin started in 2008 as a project of Open Arts Foundation. In July 2022 the bulletin joined Open Art Files as a permanent collaboration offering the monthly bulletin also in English.
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Dan Tenev
Preparatory drawing of the action-installation “Balkanization”, 1996.
Drawing
Details
- Description: cover: Dan Tenev, preparatory drawing of the action-installation “Balkanization”, in the documentary exhibition ‘Balkanization at 30’, P. Chuchurliev Art Gallery, 7 D. Blagoev Blvd., Dimitrovgrad, June 25 - August 20.
SOFIA - PLOVDIV - DIMITROVGRAD - KAZANLAK - GABROVO - EUROPE - ART CAREER
SOFIA
¬ Over the past year / group show / Sofia Arsenal – Museum of contemporary art, 2, Cherni Vrah Blvd. / July 9 - September 5. At the invitation of Nadezhda Djakova, curators of the National Gallery present their impressions of the Bulgarian art scene over the past year. The exhibition takes the globally popular form of accrochage—a collective display of works by various artists bound solely by the subjective interest of the exhibition organisers. https://nationalgallery.bg/exhibitions/over-the-past-year-2/
¬ Lika Yanko / Journey to the image / solo show / curated by Nikolay Ushtavaliiski and Iva Veleva / National Gallery, The Palace, 1 Knyaz Alexander I Square / April 29 - September 5. The National Gallery owns one of the most appreciable and representative collections of artworks by the artist Lika Yanko (1928–2001). This became possible thanks to the donation gesture the artist made while still living. Whereas the two extensive exhibitions, held in 2002 and 2011, were based on the most comprehensive chronology possible, the current exhibition focuses attention on issues of her early oeuvre. https://tinyurl.com/4pz25kbm
¬ Ivan Hristov (1900 - 1987) / retrospective exhibition / National Gallery, The Palace, 1 Knyaz Alexander I Square / June 18 - September 20. Ivan Hristov is among the most prominent masters of Bulgarian landscape painting. He created hundreds of canvases that reflected the timeless nature and Bulgarian Renaissance architecture. Critics reacted positively to his strong individuality and characteristic painting technique. High international recognition for the artist was the gold medal from the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937, at which he showed the painting "Sozopol Houses". The current large-scale exhibition is composed mainly of unexhibited works owned by his heirs and admirers of his art, as well as paintings from the collection of the National Gallery and the State Art Gallery - Plovdiv. https://tinyurl.com/2wx7y8mz
¬ Kalin Serapionov / Rehearsal / solo show / National Gallery, Kvadrat 500, 1 “19th February” Str. / June 16 - August 16. “In the video installation Rehearsal, Kalin Serapionov traces the relationships between fourteen people placed within the symbolic and metaphorical space of a rehearsal room. The action unfolds without a predetermined dramaturgy or choreography. The rehearsal is conceived as a life process that takes place in the present moment. It is simultaneously a preparation and the ultimate goal of the artwork. The participants are encouraged to observe their own reactions, guided by intuition and spontaneity. In Rehearsal, Kalin Serapionov poses important questions to the audience. One of them is: Can we be together—truly, physically together—in a time when everyone is alone?” - Vessela Nozharova, Curator https://nationalgallery.bg/exhibitions/rehearsal-kalin-serapionov/
¬ Reforms : Creative Design Laboratory. A joint project by the NAA and IKEA Bulgaria / exhibition by students of the National Academy of Art Sofia / curated by Gergana Minkova, Diana Vasileva, and Elizar Milev / National Gallery, Kvadrat 500, 1 “19th February” Str. / June 10 - July 26. Within this year-long project, students majoring in Industrial Design, Ceramics, and Porcelain and Glass Design experimented with IKEA furniture and accessories, using them as a “raw material”. Through methods of redesign and the concept of the “ready-made”, the young creators were challenged to rethink the functionality of mass-produced products and discover ways to extend their lifespan. The result is a transformation where objects acquire a new identity, unexpected aesthetics, and a new life beyond their original function. https://tinyurl.com/4h7wnbcd
¬ Mirena Zlateva / Shift in focus / solo show / The Vera Nedkova House Museum, 2, 11 August St. / January 21 - July 10. Mirena Zlateva presents a selected collection of bijoux and carvings, where the boundary between sculpture and jewellery gradually blurs and melts away. In her works, the artist explores, analyses and makes parts and volumes cohere through the prism of her personal lens and sensitivity. In the exhibition, we discover more of a narrative about the impact of construction and form fashioned as an original sculpture on the human body. Displayed in this way, the works are not simply bijoux or visual accents, but sculptural forms, deliberately and outstandingly voluminous (rings, necklaces, brooches), which, from a functional point of view, arouse a sense of discomfort, but at the same time, a desire to feel and touch them. https://tinyurl.com/bdhkpze6
¬ The Peter Dachev Case / retrospective exhibition / curated by Lyuben Domozetski and Ivo Milev / Sofia City Art Gallery, 1 Gen. Gurko Str. / June 23 - August 30. In the history of Bulgarian art, there are numerous forgotten artists. However, few of them present as intriguing a case as Petar Dachev. His work unfolded during a period of intense artistic transformation, and his pieces bear witness to a sensitivity toward the new visual ideas and cultural processes of the first half of the 20th century. The exhibition "The Petar Dachev Case," organized on the occasion of the 130th anniversary of the artist's birth, is yet another research project by the Sofia City Art Gallery aimed at rethinking established historical perceptions and restoring the more complex picture of Bulgarian art between the two World Wars. The project brings together over 200 works that trace various aspects of the author's creative and personal biography. https://tinyurl.com/2k9jx3v5
¬ Vesselin Staykov / Paintings, prints, drawings / retrospective exhibition / Sofia City Art Gallery, 1 Gen. Gurko Str. / June 3 - July 19. The exhibition marks the 120th anniversary of Vesselin Staykov’s birth. More than a retrospective survey, it is a research-driven attempt to unfold the creative process of one of the great masters of Bulgarian graphic art. Although Staykov trained as a painter, he remained captivated by the graphic arts for the rest of his life. The exhibition offers a new reading of Staykov’s vast artistic legacy, which includes drawings, wood engravings, lithographs, etchings, and oil paintings. Organized around a thematic approach, the show presents over 150 works, including the series most closely identified with the artist. https://tinyurl.com/3uat4t8w
¬ Yoana Tuzharova / After the Image / solo show / curated by Reneta Georgieva / Vaska Emanuilova Gallery, 15 Yanko Sakazov Blvd. / July 14 - September 13. “The project presents sculpture as a state beyond visible completion. Here, the object is not a final result but a moment within a process — a temporary configuration of matter, electricity and perception. The light installation and neon function not as effects or decorations, but as carriers of structure. They construct, reshape and dematerialise the architecture, transforming the space into an active field.” - Reneta Georgieva https://tinyurl.com/8by39yc6
¬ Grasses and Water. Exhibition of the Textile Section / group show / UBA, 6 Shipka Str. / June 18 - July 29. The exhibition features 38 authors, mostly members of the section, but also guests from other specialties who work with textiles. In recent years, works by authors with a broader attitude to the choice of media, who are not traditional textile artists, but use the principles and materials of textile art, have been included. https://tinyurl.com/mshcv7dm
¬ Italian Art Under the Tiles 20th – 21st Century. Zabchevi Collection / group show / UBA, 6 Shipka Str. / June 9 - July 25. The exhibition raises the curtain on a rich collection created by the meeting of two collectors from Italy and Bulgaria – Luigi Martini and Georgi Zabchev. Composed of numerous works by painters and sculptors from European and Bulgarian art, at the core of the foreign collection of Georgi and Vanya Zabchevi is that of Luigi Martini and his daughter Monnalisa, later significantly enriched. It dominates the current exhibition, where figurative painting is the main focus. https://tinyurl.com/4uec86n7
¬ Reframing Family: Feminist Perspectives Through the Lens / group show / curated by Dr. Kallina Brailsford / Goethe-Institut, 1 Budapest Str. / June 25 - August 31. The exhibition brings together nine photographers identifying as women whose works were brought into dialogue through a Goethe-Institut residency across Bulgaria, Hungary and India. Emerging through exchange and collective reflection across different cultural and political contexts, the exhibition uses photography, archival images, family albums, video and installation to examine family not as a fixed or natural structure, but as a contested space shaped by power, memory, care, silence, gender, identity and belonging. https://tinyurl.com/4asm6w6n
¬ Nikola Andreev / Society of Time / solo show / curated by Philip Stoilov / Credo Bonum Gallery, 2 Slavyanska str. / July 8 - August 8. In his first solo exhibition Nikola Andreev explores the complex relationship between various critical sociocultural phenomena of the present. Through various forms of contemporary visual art the author focuses on the need for a critical revision of social interaction in an environment of intense ideological differences, while simultaneously emphasizing the necessity to independently assert one's own autonomous position as a way of overcoming social fragmentation. https://tinyurl.com/3rmh9ka3
¬ Nine Elephants Vol. 3 / Everything we do / festival for art in the urban environment / July 9 - 19. For the third consecutive year, artists, researchers and conductors, as well as concretes, bakers and bees set out from the city centre toward its many peripheries. Their projects raise questions about invisible labour in urban cultural centres as a form of sustaining community; about the desire to start life anew by moving one village to another place; about the queue outside the shop as a form of play, and rest as a form of work. Full program on https://devetslona.art/en/programme/
¬ Bilyana Tokmakchieva / Tabula Rasa / solo show / scenography Lovro Ivančić / CCA Toplocentrala Gallery - Cube, 5 Emil Bersinski Str. / June 30 - July 26. The project creates a speculative narrative by transforming the gallery into an underground bio-laboratory and examines the conditions under which extreme ideologies take root and the socio-political conditions that lead whole groups to disconnect from basic moral values and adopt radical behaviour. Nationalism, extremism, and fascism aren't aberrations that happen to "other people." They are human responses to uncertainty and injustice, which means they could happen to any of us. https://toplocentrala.bg/en/program/visual/tabula-rasa
¬ Stratos Kalafatis / Archipelago / solo show / curated by Nadezhda Pavlova / Synthesis Gallery, 55 “Vasil Levski” Blvd / June 18 - July 23. First shown on the occasion of Greece’s participation in the 10th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2006, the project explores the concept of the Aegean archipelago as a “water city” – an idea inspired by the historian Ruggiero Romano. Rather than documenting the islands as tourist destinations or architectural sites, Kalafatis focuses his attention on what connects them: the sea routes, the ships, the horizons and the journey itself. https://tinyurl.com/5a8s63yb
¬ Kalina Dimitrova / Flying Rivers / solo show / Charta Gallery, 12 Vrabcha Str. / June 11 - July 11. Kalina Dimitrova’s project Flying Rivers places markers tracing the long journey of water “exhaled” by the tropical forests and “inhaled” by the forests around us. Both poetic and apocalyptic, they function as a flashing red warning light for the ease with which we destroy some of our most vital resources for a good life, provoking events that gradually turn into severe social conflicts. https://chartagallery.com/
¬ Black Market / group show / curated by Camille Velluet / PUNTA Gallery, 37 Stefan Stambolov Bld. / June 10 - July 11. ”Black Market is, first and foremost, a response to the territory in which it takes shape. Located in the heart of Sofia’s Women’s Market, a crossroads where various forms of trade, exchange, and transaction unfold, Punta Gallery is embedded within a social and cultural fabric woven around a multitude of open-air stalls. This specific context, along with the many stories that emerge from it—gathered over the course of several stays between the seaside city of Varna and the winding streets of Sofia’s old town—became the starting point for a reflection on the informal economy, the circulation of goods and information, and the conditions that give rise to these alternative flows.” - Camille Velluet https://tinyurl.com/yf53prbn
¬ Pavlos Ioannides / Temporary Shelters In Every Residential Building / solo show / POSTA, 34 Dondukov Bld. / June 11 - July 11. The exhibition is a result of Pavlos’s artist residency in Sofia and is directly inspired by the building where POSTA is, whose basement has bomb shelters. The importance of these urban cells resurfaced at the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine, when they were inspected. The examination of the vitrine—a synecdoche for the residential building—as a portal, a boundary, a home, a refuge, and a body is the cornerstone of Pavlos Ioannides’ work. Part of FIG.6 Festival. https://tinyurl.com/8y33nkmt
¬ Kiril Prashkov / Infinite Stroke / solo show / curated by Iara Boubnova / Doza Gallery, 52 Tsar Samuil Str. / July 1 - 30. “The exhibition presents works by Kiril Prashkov created between 1978 and 2026. A question runs through the works across the decades: what happens to a sign when we look at it long enough? Prashkov finds text everywhere – in musical notation, in the apparent chaos of barbed wire, in intertwined branches, twigs, and fragments of nature. For him, these are alphabets: systems of signs that can be read, transcribed, and inhabited. He does not move past the sign in order to arrive at meaning; instead, he remains within the sign itself – long enough for it to become strange again.” - Iara Boubnova https://fb.me/e/5ccDstiDF
¬ Alexander Toshev / Some cultural issues / solo show / Arosita Gallery, 12B Vrabcha Str. / July 2 - 16. “Some cultural issues is a materialization of my observations on today's cultural dynamics and their inevitable echo in contemporary visual art. The main position in the exhibition is occupied by the mysterious figure of the "lyrical hero", standing in a space of uncertainty. The hero's path is unclear, obstructed by the rapidly changing reality. In my first solo exhibition, I examine these questions in a series of paintings, interpretations of some famous works and author's compositions, touching on the theme of the erosion of solid foundations and anxiety about the unclear future.” - Alexander Toshev https://fb.me/e/7SzOYqGgk
¬ Nika Oblak & Primož Novak / video installations / Automatic Gallery, 11 Dunav Str. / June 25 - July 27. Nika Oblak & Primož Novak have been working as a collective since 2003. In their artistic practice they examine contemporary media and capital driven society as they dissect its visual and linguistic structure. Automatic Gallery présents two of their works : "Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?" and "Circular cycle". https://automatic.gallery/
PLOVDIV
¬ Petar Nakov / OT / site-specific project / curated by Ivaylo Avramov / Sarieva Gallery, 40 “Otets Paisiy” Str. / April 30 – July 31. The project explores space as a woven structure in which sculpture is not merely volume or material, but a system of interrelations. Its central element is a reinforcing (rebar) structure incorporating forms referring to the Glagolitic letters “o” and “t”. The work on the exhibition by Nakov and Avramov manifests not only as a spatial, site-specific realization within the compact internal volume of 423 × 404 × 355 cm (4.23 × 4.04 × 3.55 m = 60.67 m³), but is also perceived by the gallerists as a portrait of the genesis and character of the gallery. https://tinyurl.com/ujtxwz8z
¬ Creative Spaces. 14 artists from Austria / group exhibition / Plovdiv Art Gallery, Hall 2019, 32 Gladstone Str./ July 8 - August 6. The exhibition stems from years of deepening connections between Plovdiv Art Gallery and established figures of the Austrian art scene, built through mutual professional exchange and residency visits by artists and curators. "Creative Spaces" features over 65 works—predominantly paintings and sculptures—by creators with highly distinct visual languages. https://fb.me/e/5YX3jXuIZ
¬ Alec Hales / Inconsistency and repetition / solo show / curated by Kalina Peycheva / Galeriata - independent art space, 73 “Rayko Daskalov” Str. / July 7 - 24. “In Inconsistency and Repetition a singularity is referred to both as a question relating to the tendency toward a production of a singular aesthetic, as well as a broader cultural or metaphysical issue. There is a focus on a singular repetitive system that can generate differences. Alec toys with the modernist legacy in an attempt to redraw the boundaries between abstraction and figuration - whilst taking tropes from futurism and surrealism into an ironic and humorous sphere. Ultimately, he plays around with ethics of exploration that promote irregularity, error and inconsistency through the medium of painting.” https://tinyurl.com/58f74eay
¬ Grandfather's mitten / group show / Galeriata - independent art space, 73 “Rayko Daskalov” Str. / July 16 - August 9. The exhibition is a utopian and imaginative response to the possible will of weapons that refuse to fulfill their role, that turn out to serve foreign purposes in an already disassembled world. Archaic symbolism and postmodern over-signification meet in the protest against modern war, in which, through the play of art and imagination, we can imagine a space of rebellious objectivity. https://tinyurl.com/ycxp47hr
¬ Tsvetomira Borisova / Hot Day / solo show / curated by Vanya Grozdanova / lo3eto, between the villages of Patalenitsa and Vetren Dol, Pazardzhik region / June 28 - July 26. With this show the artist expands her recent concept on femininity, in relation to power dynamics and fragility, exploring its deviations through escapism and perception of intimacy. She uses ceramics as main media, merging it with found objects and matter being reincarnated through exposure that is inherent to any exhibition context. Tsvetomira Borisova keeps her work for this project organic, in form, in perception, in motion of development. A clash of nature, decay and human-made content. https://lo3eto.org/
DIMITROVGRAD
¬ Dan Tenev / Balkanization at 30 / documentary exhibition / P. Chuchurliev Art Gallery, 7 D. Blagoev Blvd. / June 25 - August 20. In 2026, it will be 30 years since the iconic action-installation by artist Dan Tenev, carried out in 1996 in the bed of the Maritsa River near Dimitrovgrad. It marks the beginning of his long-standing series "Air Reserves" and is one of the most radical examples of land art and conceptual art in Bulgaria. "Balkanization" represents an equilateral triangle with a side of 50m made of a polyethylene sleeve 800 m long and 0.6 m in diameter. The work is a soft sculpture, whose form is dynamic and is influenced by changes in the environment - wind, currents, etc. The title refers to the geopolitical processes of fragmentation of the Balkans in the 1990s. By intervening in the landscape, the author interprets political events and transforms them into an artistic image. https://fb.me/e/73mvGBdJi
KAZANLAK
¬ Claudia di Francesco / Rituals / solo show / Art Gallery - Kazanlak, Dechko Uzunov House Museum, 24 Knyaz Mirski Str. / July 2 - September 6.Claudia’s work explores the sometimes uneasy tension between folklore and feminism, ritual and routine, light and dark, the animal and the plant. It is ethereal and intimate without being saccharine, paying homage to the centuries of tradition, myth and mysticism in our shared lands, whilst never being afraid to challenge what the rituals born in and of them represent. Her work seeks, above all, connection between the sacred and the profane, between ancient and modern, and between sister countries, each with their own tradition of healing, celebration and sacred symbols. https://tinyurl.com/4wv38zup
¬ Katrin Tomova / Paintings / solo show / curated by Rumen Serafimov / Art Gallery - Kazanlak, Main building, 9 Sveti sveti Kiril i Metodii Str. / April 16 - June 28.“Colour is the great force playing the central role in Katrin Tomova’s painting. I can say with confidence that she is among the finest colourists in contemporary Bulgarian art. And, as Kandinsky advised, Katrin Tomova has renounced the realistic, the figurative and the material in her painting, and has given herself over to a powerful and free, abstract-expressionist mode of expression – one that gives colour full scope to project its rich visual life in complex, multicoloured harmonies.” - Rumen Serafimov https://tinyurl.com/2s4dcmf5
¬ Traces. Tlaka Residency / group show / Art Gallery - Kazanlak, Nenko Balkanski House Museum, 17 "General Radetski" Str. / May 2 - June 14. The project "Tlaka: Community for Socially Engaged Art" is an initiative of an informal group of young artists from Kazanlak. The first edition took place in the period March 22 - 29, 2026 in the village of Srednogorovo. It involved young authors working in the field of contemporary art, who within one week developed their projects in dialogue with the place, its history and social environment. The idea of the residency is based on the concept of "tlaka", which means a traditional form of mutual assistance and voluntary work in the Bulgarian village. In the modern context, this concept has been rethought as a model for joint work, sharing and building a creative community. https://tinyurl.com/mtn35sx7
GABROVO
¬ Structures in Transition / group show / Christo and Jeanne‑Claude Center, Museum of Humor and Satire, 68 Bryanska Str. / March 24 - July 25. The exhibition is the culmination of the two‑month Curatorial School – an educational and practical program aimed at developing curatorial skills, critical thinking, and professional preparation in the field of visual arts. The exhibition includes works from the museum’s archive, brought into dialogue with the perspectives of young painters, contemporary artists, illustrators, and even photojournalists. The project explores the tension between the individual and society, revealing the many invisible ties and rules that connect them. https://tinyurl.com/4fznfufr
EUROPE
¬ Veneta Androva, Gery Georgieva, Maria Nalbantova, and Rayna Teneva / Federation of Minor Practices / joint project / curated by Martina Yordanova / commissioner Desislava Dimova / Biennale di Venezia - 61st edition / Bulgarian Pavilion, Sala Tiziano / May 9 - November 22. The project transforms the Pavilion into a speculative research laboratory that gathers signals from four films and activates them through a video game as a space for interaction with the audience. Within it, visitors are faced with choices - navigating between different values and possible directions, and thus participating in the construction of a potential shared political future. The exhibition addresses themes such as identity, disinformation, labour, and ecology, and explores forms of coexistence, care, and shared imagination in the context of contemporary crises. Each visitor’s personal choice is understood as a minor practice that influences the “federation” itself - as a space for collective orientation. https://bulgarianpavilionvenice.art/en
ART CAREER
¬ Bridges / open call for a residency programme / AICA International and the Cité internationale des arts, Paris / Deadline August 30. AICA International and the Cité internationale des arts have jointly developed a research residency programme aimed at art critics working and living outside mainland France. This programme also provides an opportunity to foster encounters with the French art, critical and curatorial scenes, which may enrich the research projects of the successful applicants. More information and application at https://www.citeinternationaledesarts.fr/en/appels-a-candidature/bridges/
Monthly edition by Open Art Foundation
¬ news selection : Desislava Mileva
¬ logo : Nedko Solakov
¬ cover : Dan Tenev, preparatory drawing of the action-installation “Balkanization”, in the documentary exhibition ‘Balkanization at 30’, P. Chuchurliev Art Gallery, 7 D. Blagoev Blvd., Dimitrovgrad, June 25 - August 20