[a]cube contemporary
The abstract art contest ‘21x21" 2021
Group exhibition of 14.02.2021 / 26.04.2021
The third edition of the abstract art contest ‘21x21’ took place during the pandemic. During the lockdown period the works travelled to Bulgaria for a long time, but eventually the final exhibition was of great quality and went on from March 14th to April 26th, 2021. There were works from 89 artists from Bulgaria, Latvia, Hungary, Romania, Russia, Poland, Portugal and Ireland.
The jury consisted of: Romil Kalinov - artist, Elena Krasteva - scientist and photographer (first place winner of last year’s edition of the contest), Desislava Deneva - artist (second place winner), Anelia Raikova - artist and first place winner from 2019, Morena Stefanova - Archaeologist, Research Associate, Egyptian Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Onnik Karanfilian - artist, Stoyan Kutsev - artist, Teodora Burgudjieva - writer, Todor Raikov - artist, and Geya Antonova - designer. The judging process was, as always, fully anonymous.
First place is awarded to Tsvetelina Stefanova for the work ‘Her phases’. Second place is shared between Biser Lazarov, Darina Zlatareva and Martina Karaivanova. This year the inaugural prize ‘Friend of the Gallery’ goes to the established graphical artist Ivan Ninov, and the audience award goes to Elitsa Baramó.
We thank all participating artists for the excellent works they sent, as well as the jury for its diligent work in assessing them.
The purpose of the ‘21x21’ contest is to capture a moment in time for abstract art in Bulgaria and aboard, and to gather in one common space artists and explorers with similar interests.
We hope that in 2022 we will see you again for the fourth edition of the ‘21x21’ contest in gallery [a] cube contemporary.
“One-year program to support private professional organizations in the field of arts”
Passing and Remaining Landscapes / Parallel Realities project
Solo exhibition by Elitsa Baramó 18.02.2021 / 08.03.2021
Parallel Realities Project
On the expansion of consciousness and the laws of contingency
The abstract pictorial compositions are superimposed with author's photographs of nature and the traces of man in it, connected with visual symbols and their presence in the linguistic semantics. The message refers to the creative energy of the word, the creativity of self-knowledge, self-reflection as a path to the other and the identity. Parallel reality as something not so distant, an alternative for relaxation in a stolen pause.… as a reflection in the show cases superimposed on reality or the lights on the wet asphalt. Awareness of what is before our eyes… for joy of light and search for signs without unnecessary fatalism.
Parallel realities realize simultaneously all possibilities. Without undo. Where is the beginning of this all-embracing probability, or where is the entrance to the garden with paths going apart? - They may be the physical side of rebirth, when you can (or cannot) choose a new life.
What should be the relationship original vs. copy?.… And other questions-answers.… The original is one-of-a-kind, it inspires. It can be the object of mimesis (imitation) and cultural continuity. Dummies are a convenience, in which the copy has a cognitive and educational function. But if we lose the thread, the copy displaces the original. The archetypal position is already taken by the copy or by the copy of the copy, etc., a hall with mirrors, in which only the reflection of the original has entered...
Elitsa Baramó
Translated from Bulgarian by Nelly Tchalakova
Passing and Remaining Landscapes project
Reflections on the perception and selective nature of memory.
There are landscapes which pass and landscapes which remain. Sometimes we have no control. But it is up to us to decide how we perceive things: as a part of life that will pass or a place and a state in which we want to stay.
Landscape is a synthesis between man and the environment. It can also be a quantum reflection of time in the changing matter or in the immaterial, such as memory is.
The PASSING landscapes are vaguely specified, almost on the fiction’s fringes of their reality. They bear no references to any events and personal experiences. The REMAINING landscapes are fixed more steadily in the memory and they are objectified as a reality that can be proven. They are related to introspection and our internal metrics.
But if the contemplator and the landscape are at rest, the landscape remains and there is someone to observe.… When no one is watching, there is no landscape too.
.…Greetings from Schopenhauer.
“One-year program to support private professional organizations in the field of arts”
OUTSIDE! / DEHORS!
Solo exhibition by Elena Krasteva 28.01.2021 / 17.02.2021
Еlena Krasтeva is the winner of the first prize in the second competition 21x21
Help, I'm suffocating! Let me out, open windows and doors! And break the locks, they're everywhere! I see my leg fluctuating on the doorstep... Am I going to cross it, or am I just going to imagine how it is somewhere else? Everyday life, which seemed banal to me, becomes suddenly mysterious. And even the graffiti on the walls of the city unveils hidden paintings. The light brings change, and suddenly everything comes to life and makes sense... Objects abandoned in the deserted streets testify that there was once life here. Traces of an ancient human presence just like in Pompeii or elsewhere in the world. There was life here, let him come back!
Michel-Albert Vanel
Au secours, j’étouffe ! Sortir, ouvrir les portes et les fenêtres ! Et faites sauter les verrous, il y en a partout ! Je vois mon pied hésitant sur le seuil à sorti... Vais-je le franchir, ou seulement imaginer l’ailleurs? Le quotidien, qui me semblait banal devient soudain mystérieux. Et même les graffitis sur les murs de la cité révèlent des tableaux cachés. La lumière apporte le changement, et soudain tout bouge, et tout prend du sens… Les objets abandonnés dans les rues désertées attestent qu’il ici, autrefois, il y eut une vie. Traces d’une ancienne présence humaine, tout comme à Pompéi, ou en d’autres lieux. Là était la vie, enfin qu’elle revienne!
Michel-Albert Vanel
“One-year program to support private professional organizations in the field of arts”
DREAMS
solo exhibition by KARINA POPOVA 05.12 / 20.01.2021
The works I present in this exhibition and in this special space, gallery [a] cube contemporary are an installation of porcelain objects and a series of drawings with ink. This is a true and personal story, but inspired by dreams. Maintaining a surreal connection between reality and fiction, through mirrors and reflections, duplication of reality is conveyed in my visual searches and discoveries. In our dreams, ideas are born, unreal things happen, and yet they are an unsolved and profound mystery to all of us. Every idea in art is first born in a certain language and its role is unchanging. In the drawings, words have their place in free and poetic form, following smoothly the curves of ink, which often only leads to the creation of the works.
“One-year program to support private professional organizations in the field of arts”
MEDITATION ON AN OBJECT
solo photography exhibition by IVAYLO STOIMENOV 15.11 / 04.12.2020
Meditation through photography
When concentrating on an object there could essentially be four different phases of experience. In the first step (the one we focus on in this first part of the project) the object ''gets all the attention''. The meditator focuses entirely on the object, depriving himself from everything around, until he gets completely absorbed by it. The subjective feeling of Self is starting to disappear and only the object remains. This intense state of perception is what the author is trying to visualize in a two-dimensional space.
With the 'Meditation through photography' project you are assigned a visual guide. Ivaylo Stoimenov’s work stems from the analog medium, managing to penetrate the objects of his depictions in a way that seems as if the two-dimensional is trying to turn itself ‘inside out’ in the viewer’s perception. The direct composition of the photographs fully captivates the senses, while the perfectly calculated formatting brings peace to the mind. Every image has a strong focal point which increases concentration. These three immutable constructs guide the viewer into a conscious deprivation of the materiality of the outside world. While the relation to the visual concentration of Mark Rothko’s pieces is clearly apparent, Ivaylo’s work is also reminiscent of the minimalist style. The author himself has taken an ascetic direction, freeing his work from even the slightest hint of logorrhea. In the "Meditation through photography" project the visual language translates the meditative practice in a simple and efficient manner."
Pavlina Obretenova
CHRONICLES IN A YEAR
Fine Art exhibition STOYAN KUTSEV 16.09.2020 / 07.10.2020
Chronicles in a year. A short story, about excitement, events and events, dreams and overlays, in an attempt to connect modern and a story of fabulous and real, dramatic - comic; An eclectic expression passing through the construct and the abstract to the sign as symbolism.
LOOKING BACK
Fine Art exhibition DESSI DENEVA 14.07.2020 / 04.08.2020
Desi Deneva won a second prize at this year's 21x21 Abstract Art Competition and this solo exhibition is her prize. LOOKING BACK Maybe the pandemic tried to "waste" time... and it is as if modern thinking finally desacralize the harmonious image of human interaction and nature. Their silent plot has lost its power. In fact, harmony has long given way to chaos. I think that's where my natural critical reflex is, looking for a foothold in the psychologicalization of the phenomena of life. This is in contrast to the intrusive images that are aggressively present everywhere and sift through the aesthetic sphere of human perception. Electronically generated reality not only complements, but also replaces the traditional real material environment. But there is something else – in a situation of plurality of personal positions, of sociocultural traditions, of philosophical paradigms, of utopian perspectives, where does the autonomy of the author's address take place? So now I found a breath to look back, but not nostalgic, but again to ask myself the question of truthfulness in art. Yet each of us, daring to analyze our own thoughts and feelings, and their influence on ourselves, finds ourselves in a double situation. On the one hand, he discovers not only his own emotions, on the other hand, it becomes more interesting when he discovers their impact on others. The phenomena are considered not only by the iterate, but to "feel" (which is the verbatim meaning of the Greek word "empathy", that is, to be resyed). You've been contacted. I think this is where I should get rid of the polemic situation about the steadfastness of personal taste and coercion from the outside. I will share with you: I am still curious to build on my own spiritual world. The lucid metaphysical archetypal references emerging from the unconscious and recreated into creativity have always tempted me. The established connections, in different contexts, entangle each other in situational rebus. The plastic ditch of paintings is populated with allusions to real objects, integrated in a personal way. Their specificity helps me to more legibly express my ideas on the canvas and provoke me for new work conversions. They initiate a transcendent limitlessness over the world of "familiar" visible reality, yet are a testament to the time they occur. In this exhibition it is sealed from ten years ago, but I perceive it with the criticality of my experience, with a look forward/beyond.
SHARED SPACES
# Solidarity_In_Culture "Shared Spaces" is carried out with the support of Sofia Municipality, under the initiative "Solidarity in Culture". The Architect project is a part of the short film “Shared Spaces“. The painting compositions of the project exist in a new reality; they are set in motion and are accompanied by a sound track of conceptual texts by Baramó in Bulgarian and English. The paintings do not illustrate the texts, nor do the texts explain the paintings. The team will release some fragments before the final production, in the sense of shared spaces. Existentialistic texts are very relevant in the current situation, when we are facing the challenge of self-knowledge. It is a road to meaningful communication with oneself; everyone is in search of one’s personal Virgil... The artist shares her vision of the Fluxus ideas reborn and further developed in the new context. Welcome to “Shared Spaces” in June 2020, and feel invited for a glass of virtual wine!
PENTIMENTO
Fine Art exhibition SVETLOZAR STOYANOV-SVESTO 25.05.2020 / 20.06.2020
Pentimento is an artistic approach that involves superimposing a new image on an existing one to change all or part of the work. One idea replaces another idea, after some rethinking. The moment of "repentance" has come, as is the literal translation of the word. For me, even more interesting are those cases when, for one reason or another, there is no final erasure of the previous layer and in this process, between the images, a special connection can crystallize....
ABSTRACT ART CONTEST 2020
Fine Art Group exhibition abstract contest 21x21 2020 21.02.2020 / 17.03.2020
Dear friends. This year 23 works were adopted for the jury, which corresponded to the conditions of the 21x21 contest of the following artists: Lyubima Bardarova, Dimitar Ivanov, Plamen Bonev, Antonia Fingarova, Stanislava Stoyanova, Dimka Stavreva, Martina Karaivanova, Elena Krasteva, Viktor Georgiev, Vanya Valkova, Maria Zlatanova, Delia Chausheva, Elitsa Baramova, Orlin Dimitrov, Miriana Savova, Tsvetan Kazandjiev, Petar Krusev, Svetlozar Stoyanov-Svesto, Juliana Tekova, Nikolay Deliyanev, Kalin Ruichev, Svetozar Dimitrov and Desislava Deneva.
Seven-member jury: Prof. Chavdar Popov, Diana Draganova-Zaire, Anelia Raykova, Dimitar Yaranov, Stoyan Kutsev, Karina Popova and Radoslav Chichev, in a completely anonymous assessment chose the following artists:
First prize-Elena Krasteva for the work and "Dreams under Indigo" scanned negative and digital printing. Second prize is divided between Elitsa Baramova for "Chronotopos LXX" acrylic, pastel on cardboard and Desislava Deneva for "links" mixed technique on paper.
At one point in the second place are Delia Chausheva, Tsvetan Kazandjiev and Svetlozar Stoyanov-Svesto.
INVISIBLESUN
Fine Art Solo exhibition by ENIL ENCHEV 21.01.2020 / 13.02.2020
There are two songs with the name Invisible Sun and both are of my favorite bands, the more famous is the Police, but the one I listened to as I drew and gave the name of the exhibition is the Invisible Sun of The Prodigy. The minimalist canvas of three chords and the short canto, repeated repeatedly, are the most accurate reflection of the feelings that I previewed in the paintings... Many times, I have said that abstract art is like music – just a feeling conveyed by color, I mean instrumental music, not the opera or the songs where the libretto and lyrics tell a story...
FIRST SOLO EXHIBITION
Fine Art Solo exhibition by ORLIN DIMITROV 21.11.2019 / 14.12.2019
Orlin Dimitrov participated in the two competitions organized by the gallery-"42 Abstract" and First International abstract contest "21x21" and in the editions of BMF Pleven 2012, 2014, 2016, as well as exhibitions of Allianz Bulgaria in 2015 and 2017 in his first solo exhibition, born in 1961, in the city of Pleven artist presents 13 artworks of the last two years.
CARDBOARDS
Fine Art Solo exhibition by MIRIANA SAVOVA 08.10.2019 / 10.11.2019
Graduate of University of Veliko Turnovo, “St. Cyril and Methodius”- and graduated in 1981. Besides painting, she also worked in the field of artistic illustration and drawing. Miriana Savova is a member of Union of Bulgarian Artists (UBA) and member of International Association of Plastic Arts. She participated in over 50 group exhibitions and international symposiums in Bulgaria, France, Germany, Russia, Italy, Mexico, Serbia, Montenegro, Romania. In 2008 she won a competition for two months specialization in Cite des Arts, Paris. She had 16 individual exhibitions in Bulgaria, as well as in Romania, Serbia, Monte Negro and Germany. She won 3 awards for painting and many of her works belong to galleries and private collectors all over the world.
SCULPTURE EXHIBITION
Solo exhibition by RUSEN DOYKOV 18.06.2019 / 17.07.2019
Graduate of the National Academy of fine arts, specialty sculpture by Prof . Krum Damyanov, PhD in Art studies and Graphic arts, lecturer in the University "Paisii Hilendarski".
With its sculptures, Russen teaches aesthetics to the Spectator
38% da Vinci
Third solo exhibition by Anelia Raikova in [a] cube contemporary.
"If a person does not know what he can. He has to try."
Leonardo da Vinci
WALKING MAN
“Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Everyday, I walk myself into a state of well-being & walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. But by sitting still, & the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill. Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right.”
Soren Kierkegaard
And I decided to go ... Todor Raykov
FACE TO FACE
exhibition - painting and video STANISLAVA STOYANOVA and RADOSTINA DOGANOVA In his phenomenology of perception Merleau-Ponty places the vision at the center of perception. Vision is seen as an act of accomplished co-being, where I and The Other consolidate their co-existence, their mutual inter-dwelling in the unity of the present. The gaze is this intentional “aboutness” which relates to the existence of The Other, indicating not only to his objective availability but also to his spiritual existence. The conceptual exhibition “Face to Face” aims to problematize and discuss the place of the gaze in the current reality, to situate the gaze and the vision as necessary phenomenological constituents in the realization of the intersubjective relationship with The Other, as well as acquainting The Otherness, The Strangeness, and The Marginalized – from social, cultural and humane perspective. Central moment for the investigation of this cultural otherness is the painting “Eyes” by Radostina Doganova, which is inspired by the stay of the artist in India and her contact with the cultural, social and religious differences between the Eastern and the European culture. In unison, the series of paintings “The Waves” by Stanislava Stoyanova, along with the short videoinstallation “Time Passes”, problematize the complex relationship of the artist with the sea and its crucial part of her life – on the one hand, as a symbol of inspiration, on the other, as an inmost dream about the gaze of her beloved one. Stanimir Stoyanov – Goldsmiths, University of London Stanislava Stoyanova is a visual artist, who lives and works in Sofia, Bulgaria. She graduated from National Academy of Arts, Sofia in 1988. She has a variety of international participations – including exhibitions in Italy (Venice, Florence) and London (Bulgarian Cultural Institute). In 2016 she established the experimental art platform BLUESS art studio. Radostina Doganova lives and works in Bratislava, Slovakia, where she graduated from Academy of Fine Arts and Design in 2001. Her main interest is painting. She has a variety of exhibitions in Bulgaria and worldwide. Her works are exhibited in private collections and galleries in Australia, Germany, England, USA and Slovakia.
THE ARCHITECT PROJECT
solo exhibition Elitsa Baramova-Baramó 25.09 2018 -13.10.2018
Amidst stardust the Architect constructs the potential of every handful of earth. The individual is conceived as a monolithic whole, and the debris of time builds the personality as a test of free will. It is an elevator to the luminous and accomplished self. Regardless of the inter-floor zones where everyone can make a stop, each person is worthy in the perspective of his development. One can get old like a cathedral, with one’s back turned to the fear of the unknown, aware of the different forms of life. Day changes to night, then morning comes again; if may be spring now, and it will come again ... the eternal cycle leads us along the spiral around the axis…
SHIFTING THE SPACES
solo exhibition Mario Nikolov 16/06/2018 - 02/06/2018
The exhibition "Shifting the Spaces", which I present at the Sofia Gallery [a] cube contemporary, is my first independent performance in Bulgaria since 2013. Five years! To explain at least a small part of my attitude to art, I will paraphrase the great Man Ray: "Which I can not paint, describe or photograph. And vice versa. But my heart is in painting ... "
Through the means of geometric abstraction, I am not trying to contradict either reality or the different projections of realistic art, but through my paintings I hope to look at the world beyond its material dimensions and to illustrate metaphorically the mismatch of spaces and their confused perspectives that we have to go through most of our lives. Today we see unexpected "tectonic movements" of cultural, aesthetic, moral, spiritual level that become more intrusive, more meaningless, more aggressive ...
With this exhibition, I go back to where Vassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, Pitt Mondrian, Franz Kupka and other "brothers" went, trying to recall what they were, to share their preconceptions, to if not the world, at least your thoughts and feelings. In colors ...
BLUESS ART STUDIO
Annual exhibition of the children from BLUESS studio with head Stanislava Stoyanova 12 may 2018 / 15 may 2018
INTERCONNECTIVITY
solo exhibition Ventzislav Dikov 24.05.2018 /10.05.2018
ANALOG vs DIGITAL
solo exhibition PHILIP POPOFF 11/04/ 2018 - 21/04/2018
THERE
solo exhibition TATIANA HARIZANOVA 06/03/ 2018 - 24/03/2018
Political Balance of DOBROMIR IVAN
solo exhibition DOBROMIR IVAN 18/01/ 2018 / 03/02/2018
COLOUR JAZZ SESSION
solo exhibition Yovo Yovchev 12.12.2017 / 06.01.2018
"11"
solo exhibition ANELIA RAYKOVA 21.11.2017 / 09.12.2017
WHIMS
solo exhibition Svesto 02.11.2017 / 19.11.2017
have long experienced curiosity about all those extravagant manifestations we call whims. My desire is to digging, to what extent the wayward impulses have an impact in different life and especially creative situations. unmotivated desires and surprising twists can be existential fateful, like this, most often we mean with phrase "whims of fate". And how the fad influences the contemporary creative act, which is a complex cultural implikaciâ of imagination, cognition, experimental insights, coincidence, passion... It seems to me that under its influence on this paradigm we must add the risk. When the artist rejects the approach of gradual construction, ignores what he has created so far and radically changes it, hoping to achieve a new, different aesthetic. Sometimes it really happens, which makes me think that the whims can also be benevolent.
AUTUMNAL TOUCHES
Alexander Kaprichev watercolours 20.09.2017 / 07.10.2017
SRECTATORS
solo exhibition / Alexander Alexandrov 08.09.2016 / 28.09.2016
Alexander Alexandrov has won first prize in the competition "42 abstract" held 2016 .... as the author of the exhibition says: "All characters are either spectators of a phenomenon or they are monitored directly and indirectly" ...The artist is never just a spectator ....
INELIMENTAL
solo exhibition Eli Joteva 01.07.2018/16.07.2018
The project INELIMENTAL employs light to offer a new way of seeing through the shadows of two worlds. The images are selected from hundreds of double exposed analog films, shot as a personal record of experience over the last three years in Australia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Montenegro, Spain, Serbia, Turkey, Thailand and the USA. This improbable combination of elements captured on film, brings life to a series of phantasmal memories and impossible mixtures of experience and vision. Nature and cityscapes merge with human figures, monuments and rituals, thus creating a third documented un-reality, which exists only in the meeting of two separate time-spaces. The spontaneous decision-making in the shooting process transcends mental logic by instead relying on an elementary intuitive response. Ultimately, this trust in an unconscious process allows for the synchronistic alignment of spaces and objects, and points to a metaphysical interconnection between the undeveloped film and the undeveloped aspects of the collective and personal memory.
WATER TOWER ART FEST
group exhibition Efrosina Stoycheva, Lubomir Vassilev, Emilia Smokova 20 june / 29 june 2016
The Language of Light
solo exhibition Elaine Jeffrey 03.05.2016 / 02.06.2016
From documentary beginnings Jeffrey’s style has gone through many transitions. One of her most recent bodies of work “The Language of Light” is abstract with elements of minimalism. Using a digital camera these images have been created in Jeffrey’s studio where she sets up tableaux-like scenarios with found objects and daily utensils. Using day light from a large window and reflectors Jeffrey seeks out pockets of colour and shape that emerge within these settings. Through this work-process, light itself - which is normally seen through colour - becomes the subject matter of Jeffrey’s work.
03
group exhibition Angelina Pavlova, Georgi Georgiev-Jorrras, Onnik Karamfilyan, Stanislava Stoqnowa, Albena Shteniovska-Egloff, Enil Enchev 15.12.2015/24.12.2015
