In the next morning
Resent exhibition at "Contrast" gallery - Sofia
An exhibition called "The Next Morning" was opened by the well-known artist Stefan Petrunov in the Sofia's "Contrast" gallery at 49 "Tsar Samuil" street. The opening is on Friday, July 7, from 6 to 8 p.m., and the paintings will be available for review up to and including July 23.
Stefan Petrunov's art does not offer easily legible messages. His painting is characterized by a complexity of meanings, multicomponent elements and objects, and artistic eclecticism, implying a postmodern approach. He experiments and explores pictorial matter passing or touching pure realism, abstraction, expressionism, pop art, and cubism to achieve his own artistic language. In his practice, Stefan Petrunov dedicates himself to providing a new visual experience to the viewer.
Man is the main subject in his art. The author reflects on various states and possible reincarnations of man (from the deification to the deification of the Self). It is excited by the reflection of the individual in the cultural layers of time and the imaginary transformations and searches of the personality in its own consciousness. Explores the limits in the metamorphoses of the human image in art over the centuries and brings them to the present. Stefan Petrunov polarizes the topic of beautiful - ugly, humanism, and anti-humanism...
"Apollo" oil on canvas 100 x 120 cm.2023 |
"Hercules" oil on canvas 100 x 120 cm.2023 |
The exhibition "The Next Morning" brings together two series of paintings by Stefan Petrunov, primarily new and unexhibited canvases, and several collages. One series is related to the unfulfilled dreams of the heavenly, unattainable land - Arcadia. An idyllic topos filled with nymphs and gods, eternal love and harmony. Exotic nature. The seriousness is ironically broken by colorful inscriptions giving direction to the viewer. We are also amused by the placement of some of the images. The athletic Zeus the Thunderer is represented in the jungle, swinging on a creeper like Tarzan. Demeter, the goddess of fertility is depicted realistically, as a luxuriant lady with interesting attributes - a crown, drapery, and an inscription reminiscent of advertising inscriptions exploited by pop art - a counterpoint to the ancient ideal of beauty... Absolute love, possibly even between a deity and a mortal, symbolizes Eros and Psyche. The works in this series are artistic interpretations of ancient Greek mythology, inspired by imagined memories of nostalgic and dreamlike places and images.
installation view
The second series of images features African art artifacts combined with anatomical parts and geometric shapes. The author uses the power of expressiveness of African masks and figurines to explore emotional and psychological areas. The images are reminiscent of surreal visions of a post-apocalyptic nature. Creatures from the future. In them, the aesthetic ceases to be leading, it becomes an environment for philosophical and intellectual discourse. It takes the viewer through time and space. In today's global world of confused values and lost ones, in search of self, the person is recognized in different identities, the consciousness often degenerates and forgets about its divine origin. This is also reflected in the mythical creatures depicted by Stefan Petrunov. Where will the search for new worlds take us? Will the development of technology, artificial intelligence, and the loss of connection with nature displace man? Human will and self-esteem are transformed into greed and lust for power, which destroy...Similar and other questions posed in the works of Stefan Petrunov. We have to answer some of them ourselves...The matter in his works is only an illusion.
PhD. Ani Venkova
ZEIT UND ZUSCHAUER - (TIME AND VIEWERS)
group exhibition at BKI "Haus Wittgenstein" - Wien - 16/01/2023 - 02/02/2023
The project, whose concept is the work of Dr. Josef Pauschenwein (and team), basically seeks ways to delineate the free zone for the interpretation of works that are not thematically challenging, but function on a plastic level. The already trivialized postmodern deconstructive process of perception is at the heart of the broader research that informs the project. What is sought is its replacement with another type of more natural interaction between the work and the viewer, which relies on the personal experience of the artists and the audience and rather on the underlying human reactions and depths provoked by the works in the exhibition.
