Exibitions

PAINTINGS by VASSIL GORANOV

DECEMBER 23, 29, 30 | 2022

VASSIL GORANOV immortalizes the golden girls from Tokyo 2021 through paintings.

The exhibition “Together” is launching right on time – on the Eve of the greatest Christian festives. The title is chosen not by accident – it sends out a message for unanimity and is dedicated to the new golden girls that strengthened the foundation of spiritual and national oneness of Bulgarians.

The upcoming exhibition of the artist immortalizes the Graces that brought the first Olympic gold in rhythmic gymnastics for our country, but it all started three years ago – in the cold January days of 2019, before Simona Dyankova, Laura Traats, Madlen Radukanova, Stefano Kiryakova and Erica Zafirova to win the battle on the path to the historical success for the Bulgarian rhythmic gymnastics; and before Elena Bineva, participant in the initial selection of the golden olympic team, took the tough decision to leave the girls due to heavy back injury.

The show at San Stefano Gallery contains 17 oil paintings and is accompanied by an album that contains vibrant portraits of the Graces – heroes going down to the greatest pages of Bulgarian history.

Vasil Goranov is born in 1972 in Velingrad. He wins his first drawing contest at the age of 4. Despite being involved in drawing from an early age, he considers to be truly drawn to art after moving to Veliko Tarnovo where he graduated in Painting. The exhibition “Together” is the third solo show of the artist at San Stefano Gallery. In 2017 he presented the show “Historical romanticism” with 19 artoworks, recreating important historical events, rulers and great personalities from Bulgarian history.

Collectible Masterpieces

15 December 2021 г. – 31 January 2022 г.

The exhibition “ASSEN PEIKOV DI ROMA” includes 50 outstanding artworks of the master of sculpture: portrait sculptures from plaster and bronze, reliefs and a self-portrait painting of the artist. The sculptor’s largest and best-known work from 1960 is the 60-foot statue of Leonardo Da Vinci at the Fiumicino Airport. Unsurprisingly, the artist’s popularity surpassed the boundaries not only of Bulgaria and Italy, but also those of Europe.

At his studio on Via Marguta 54 in Rome, Peikov worked not only on the portraits of a plethora of famous Italian intellectuals, but also world-renown personas. Some of his models, just to name a few, were J. F. Kennedy, the actresses Sophia Lauren, Claudia Cardinale, Gina Lollobrigida and Ava Gardner, the Italian film director and screen writer Federico Fellini and Alexander Fleming, who discovered penicillin.

The life of the famous sculptor was exciting, albeit full of hardships. At the age of 16, Assen became an orphan and decided to leave home and let go of the adventerous childhood on the dusty streets of Sevlievo city. Drawn by the mesmerizing Black Sea, the youngster attends the Sozopol Fishermen’s School, but later on moves to Sofia to become an alumni gold medal recipient for academic excellency in the National Academy of Arts under the supervision of the Bulgarian sculptor Andrey Nikolov.

Despite all the obstacles that life puts him through and the struggle with poverty, talent, diligence and a few brave decisions facilitate his departure outside of Bulgaria, and shortly after that he turns into one of the greatest artists in the field of sculpture.

A street in Sofia and a square in Rome are named in honour of the master.

The road of this exquisite sculpture collection to Bulgaria starts off from the place where it was created – the spiritual center of Europe – Rome. The collectible series of images will be presented together with a catalogue, containing all artworks that will be showcased in the exhibition.

WHEN?

Wednesday, December 15, 7:00 p.m.

WHERE?

San Stefano Gallery Main Exhibition Hall

MONIKA POPOVA

10 February  – 10 March 2022

This February, the legendary perpetuum mobile Monika Popova will captivate art lovers in the Contemporary Art Space [The Concrete] of the San Stefano Gallery with her solo exhibition " HAUTE COUTURE". An exhibition of a cycle of 69 colorful paintings and embroidery on wall covers in Parisian style, which was created during her two months stay in France in the summer of 2021.

The triumphant return of the wall rug (coveure) with a modern twist by Monika Popova can be seen at San Stefano Gallery between 10 February and 10 March.

A CONTEMPORARY SCULPTURE SHOW

9 December 2021 – 29 January 2022

curated by Ivaylo Avramov

The 8 Bulgarian sculptors are:

- Angel Stanev

- Vitali Halvadzhiev

- Galya Blagoeva

- Ivaylo Avramov

- Pavlin Radevski

- Peter Nakov

- Simeon Simeonov

- Yana Karamandzhukova

The show is organised by the Sculpture Depository and SSG, attracting 8 key figures of the contemporary Bulgarian sculpture scene that take part in the exhibition WHITE OBJECT, all gravitating towards the aesthetics of minimalism and asceticism closely tied to the art of the renowned Bulgarian sculptor Angel Stanev.

WHITE OBJECT includes 20 artworks - sculptures, drawings and site-specific installations each of them customised to meet the architectural environment of the San Stefano Gallery Contemporary Art Hall. Angel Stanev rarely appears in the art spotlight – his last solo show dates back to 2012 in the Sofia City Art Gallery. The critically acclaimed sculptor accepted to participate only to hand over to seven other artists the task to answer the question what is Sculpture today through their shared philosophy synchronicity and the critical thinking in approaching the sculpture media.

WHAT IS SCULPTURE? WHAT ARE THE BOUNDARIES OF SCULPTURE?

EXPLORE 8 ARTISTS PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES OF ART.

This Thursday at the San Stefano Gallery Contemporary Art Hall, all 8 artists will be present from 5p.m. - 8 p.m. to set the terms for discussing contemporary sculptural practice. Join us for the official launch to discover each discrete work that has been carefully installed according to its own needs.