Biography
Nestor Kovachev (born 1981) initially began studying for his arts degree in the Faculty of Fine Arts in Veliko Tarnovo. In 2002 he moved to Vienna, where he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, in the department of Expanded Pictorial Spaces (Studio of Franz Graf). Numerous exhibitions and participations followed suit in his artistic career in the years afterwards, ranging from international projects and exhibitions to residency programs in MMCA Seoul, Korea, Palma de Mallorca, solo exhibitions in Berlin, New York, Moscow and Vienna. Gallery Heike Curtze is actively representing Nestor Kovachev at contemporary art fairs and its exhibit program, both with solo and group shows.
About
Drawing and collage have always been an essential part of my artistic development and by this, I try to create and design my own rules of image-making. My graphic work contains elements of both drawing and collage and my artistic research is strongly influenced by the tradition of old propaganda books and newspapers. I investigate in my work the generation of society identity: a sense of self, within the context of culture. Trained in an academical drawing, I learned how composition, layout, color, proportion and scale all play a role in conveying a message. These principles are the strong background of my mind when I create my drawing-collages and transform them into a large piece of art. The motives, in close connection with the titles, consider the outside world and current events. In my works, I investigate and handle with very human individual concepts of distance, banality, isolation, ignorance or irrelevance. It is also important for me to have a strong hands-on relation with my work, therefore everything is done by hand- from cutting and drawing to assembling. The academic study in Bulgaria has inspired me for the different established technics of expression. In this way I continued to search for more and new possibilities to break the classical boundaries of the drawing, which is one of the oldest and spontaneous medias, systematically used by humans since ancient times. In spite of this it forms a different pictorial space and creates a new whole, when it is incorporated with another fragment, photo, text or color paper. This expands my aim to investigate the way human vision works and perceives. Therefore it is from main interest to me to explore the philosophy and the artistic research of visual perception and the correlation between personal experience and drawing processes. The Conceptual Drawing Series are more than drawing, they are developing a visual language.
- Nestor Kovachev, July, 2014
Gallery
Nestor Kovachev
Russian endings, 2016.
Painting
Details
- Photographer: Nestor Kovachev
- Material: Acryl, color pencil, ink on paper
- Width: 150.00 cm Height: 210.00 cm Depth: 1.00 cm
- Property of: Courtesy of the artist
Nestor Kovachev
Untitled (Mona Lisa), 2011.
Collage
Details
- Photographer: Nestor Kovachev
- Material: 1000 Puzzle, Edding
- Width: 47.70 cm Height: 67.70 cm Depth: 3.00 cm
- Property of: Courtesy of the artist
- References: http://nestorkovachev.net/untitled-mona-lisa-2011/
Nestor Kovachev
Think Tank or Deep-frozen Archeology of Knowledge, 2013.
Installation
Details
- Photographer: Nestor Kovachev
- Property of: MUSEUM ANGERLEHNER
- Description: Initially used as a British slang expression for intellect (intelligence), the term “think tank” attains significance during the Second World War in order to describe groups that contrive military strategies in bug-proof spaces. Nowadays, the functions of think tanks (German: Denkfabriken) are focused on society, influencing the formation of public opinions, as well as triggering scientific debates.
The artwork Think Tank or deep-frozen archeology of knowledge consists of 34 drawings, repainted with different acrylic colors. The depicted characters represent various professions: artists, philosophers, writers, speculators, reviewers, sociologists, translators, composers, activists and scientists. The drawings zigzag through history, revealing distinguished features of the Antiquity, the Middle Ages, as well as modernity and the present. The selection criteria for the depicted persons are rather impulsive, drawn from my own experience as an artist.
Today we are overflowed by artificial images that shape our everyday life. Our own conceptuality surfaced in our minds, sinks into oblivion because of the universal access to the technological progress. The work “What Would I Have Been If I Hadn’t Been an Artist?” expands the idea of the own identity and power of imagination. Text by(MY) - References: http://nestorkovachev.net/think-tank-or-deep-frozen-archeology-of-knowledge-2013/
Nestor Kovachev
Untitled, 2011.
Painting
Details
- Photographer: Nestor Kovachev
- Material: Oil on canvas
- Width: 160.00 cm Height: 390.00 cm Depth: 1.00 cm
- Property of: Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Heike Curtze
- References: http://nestorkovachev.net
Nestor Kovachev
Bronenosets Potemkin, Series of 98 drawings, 2014.
Drawing
Details
- Photographer: Nestor Kovachev
- Material: Nero pencil on paper
- Property of: Courtesy of Gallery Heike Curtze
- Description: for more information please visit www.nestorkovachev.net
- References: http://nestorkovachev.net/bronenosets-potemkin/
