Astry Gallery presents
Stiliyana Uzunova
The City
June 17 – July 15, 2021
Vernissage: June 17, Thursday, 17.00-20.00
Astry Gallery – Sofia 1000 34 Tsar Samuil Str
At one time, a relative, sometimes standing in front of a painting from someone’s exhibition, with all his bewilderment, reverence, humility and a little sarcasm, asked himself rather: “Is this a painting? Where is the description of life here? ”And he went to the albums with reproductions of his artists. The ideas of the early twentieth century that the work should be contemplated and perceived by the viewer, and not told by the artist, were foreign to him. The sublime, as understood by conceptualists at the beginning of the last century, with their aspirations to depict things that could not be drawn (philosophical views, emotions, subconscious thoughts, ideas, etc.), also sounded too artificial and far from real life.
For other visitors to the gallery, if there is a hint of figurativeness in art, it does not deserve attention. Of course, everyone judges the real through the heart and their own aesthetic understandings, and this does not belittle one or another work of art. The fact of its existence is justified if it is created with thought, intellect, humanism and courage … A lot of courage.
If you haven’t seen Stiliyana Uzunova’s art lately, if you have a chance, don’t miss to look at her paintings! Give them time; you will feel rewarded! In her painting, Stiliana is both figurative and abstract. Realistic and surreal. You can find more styles in her paintings and you won’t go wrong. The more you watch, the more you will discover. She paints like this, not because she would like to be liked by one or another connoisseur of painting. He paints like this because he has the taste and courage to be free. To express, to discover and reveal oneself, even to be completely honest and still preserve one’s essence.
In 2019, Stiliana was among the artists who won the prestigious UBA competition and went to Paris at the Cité des Arts – an international residence for artists in the heart of the city. After returning from France, with even more turbulent impressions from the trip, she made a series of paintings, which she showed in Burgas, in the gallery “Spring”. A year later, the memories and feelings of the city excite the artist in another way. Her different view of the eternal theme of “Paris”, as well as the melancholy of the first meeting, remain, and nostalgia provokes the appearance of her new exhibition “THE CITY”. The paradox is that these rather minor feelings materialize the monumentality and scale of the metropolis with its dizzying movement. The endless, twisted, spun and intertwined lines of human feelings and connections are the benchmarks in the journey among the anonymous crowd; preserve with tenderness and warmth memories of personal experiences, shots of familiar scenes, sounds, aromas and lights.
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