A Side Solo Show (drawings only), exhibition view Galleria Continua, San Gimignano. Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio
A Side Solo Show (drawings only), exhibition view Galleria Continua, San Gimignano. Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio
A Side Solo Show (drawings only), exhibition view Galleria Continua, San Gimignano. Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio
A Side Solo Show (drawings only), exhibition view Galleria Continua, San Gimignano. Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio
A Side Solo Show (drawings only), exhibition view Galleria Continua, San Gimignano. Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio
exhibition view 'Big & Small’, GALLERIA CONTINUA / Les Moulins, France, 2020. Courtesy the artist and GALLERIA CONTINUA. Photo Bertrand Huet / Tutti
Big & Small 2020, black and white paint, black and white marker, with the assistance of Marine Bikard, GALLERIA CONTINUA / Les Moulins, France, 2020. Photo Bertrand Huet / Tutti
Big & Small 2020, black and white paint, black and white marker, with the assistance of Marine Bikard, GALLERIA CONTINUA / Les Moulins, France, 2020. Photo Bertrand Huet / Tutti
Big & Small 2020, black and white paint, black and white marker, with the assistance of Marine Bikard, GALLERIA CONTINUA / Les Moulins, France, 2020. Photo Bertrand Huet / Tutti
exhibition view 'Big & Small’, GALLERIA CONTINUA / Les Moulins, France, 2020. Courtesy the artist and GALLERIA CONTINUA. Photo Bertrand Huet / Tutti
Collectors 2019, oil on canvas; series of 5 paintings, 73 x 100 cm each. Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio
Collectors #1 2019, oil on canvas, 73 x 100 cm
Collectors #2 2019, oil on canvas, 73 x 100 cm
Collectors #3 2019, oil on canvas, 73 x 100 cm
Collectors #4 2019, oil on canvas, 73 x 100 cm
Collectors #5 2019, oil on canvas, 73 x 100 cm
Paintings with No Texts #2 (Nine Independent People) 2012, oil on canvas, 130 x 162 cm. Photo: Dimitar Solakov and Irena Ashikova
Paintings with No Texts #5 (Jackpot on Standby), 2012, oil on canvas, 130 x 162 cm. Photo Dimitar Solakov and Irena Ashikova
Paintings with No Texts #8 (Cinema Alone (a horror movie)), 2012, oil on canvas, 130 x 162 cm. Photo Dimitar Solakov and Irena Ashikova
Paintings with No Texts #9 (A Dead Moon), 2012, oil on canvas, 130 x 162 cm. Photo Dimitar Solakov and Irena Ashikova
Paintings with No Texts #12 (Two Pilgrims) 2012, oil on canvas, 130 x 162 cm. Photo: Dimitar Solakov and Irena Ashikova
Paintings with No Texts #14 (About Eight Made-Up Creatures Drawn from Nature around Me), 2013, oil on canvas, 130 x 162 cm. Photo Dimitar Solakov and Irena Ashikova
Paintings with No Texts #18 (A Lonely Useless Ornament (Fat Version, Wintertime)), 2013, oil on canvas, 130 x 162 cm. Photo Dimitar Solakov and Irena Ashikova
Paintings with No Texts #19 (Father-Volcano and Son-Volcano, Fishing), 2013, oil on canvas, 130 x 162 cm. Photo Dimitar Solakov and Irena Ashikova
A Made-up World with a Real Person 2019, sepia, black and white ink, and wash on paper, series of 3 drawings, 19 x 28 cm each
A Made-up World with a Real Person 2019, sepia, black and white ink, and wash on paper, series of 3 drawings, 19 x 28 cm each
A Made-up World with a Real Person 2019, sepia, black and white ink, and wash on paper, series of 3 drawings, 19 x 28 cm each
Communities 2019, sepia, black and white ink, and wash on paper, series of 5 drawings, 19 x 28 cm each
Communities 2019, sepia, black and white ink, and wash on paper, series of 5 drawings, 19 x 28 cm each
Communities 2019, sepia, black and white ink, and wash on paper, series of 5 drawings, 19 x 28 cm each
Communities 2019, sepia, black and white ink, and wash on paper, series of 5 drawings, 19 x 28 cm each
Communities 2019, sepia, black and white ink, and wash on paper, series of 5 drawings, 19 x 28 cm each
Friends 2017, acrylic on gilded carved lime wood, 60 x 60 x 9 cm. Photo: Ela Bialkowska
A Shrunken Ego 2016, 24 carats gold, approx. 1 cm diameter, 11,75 grams. Photo: Ela Bialkowska
Stories in Colour #4 2016, watercolour, black and white ink on paper, 19 x 28 cm. Photo: Dimitar Solakov<br>’A golden mountain pissing a lapis lazuli piss, the best colour to match her shiny body.’
Stories in Colour #46 2016, watercolour, black and white ink on paper, 19 x 28 cm. Photo: Dimitar Solakov<br>‘A womb is taking a sabbatical. The world is too unstable, no need to keep working.’
A SS Ear (State Security E.) 2016, cast aluminum, black acrylic paint, 82 x 53 x 30 cm. Photo: Marco Minò
The Back Side of a Never Painted Altarpiece with Wings Late 90s-2014, black drawing ink on walnut wood and oak wood; in three parts with hinges, partly covered with primer, 59,5 x 81,5 x 4 cm unfolded, 59,5 x 42 x 6 cm folded. Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio
The Leader 2010, acrylic and black drawing ink on gilded carved lime wood, 64 x 61 x 4,5 cm. Photo: Oak Taylor-Smith<br>A charismatic macho-leader is born. The motherland’s womb gives her best so the leader can start leading the country (a down-at-the-bottom, somewhere in the South, highly corrupt piece of European state) almost immediately. The committee responsible for the preliminary glorifying of the newly born, slightly stupid, macho-leader has covered the motherland’s womb with all the golden elements necessary for eternal glory. Somewhere around, but not in the picture, are the macho-leader’s subjects/citizens. They are all buying small shiny copies of this very piece (you’re standing in front of) right now and are placing them in the middle of their miserable lives, ready to be worshipped. Am I one of these subjects/citizens? Sure, I did the shiny piece’s model.
The Tunnel 2009, acrylic and black drawing ink on gilded carved walnut wood, 60 x 60 x 4 cm. Photo: Nicolò Burgassi<br>A tunnel leading to a better life and a brighter future is not attractive enough for people but the golden, sexy frame will sell it (which is good news for the tunnel’s stockholders, who reside mainly on the other side, fortunately). Edited by Christy Lange
I miss Socialism, maybe... 2010, wall painted in Chinese red, vinyl stickers; nine sofas presenting the nine Chinese characters constituting the phrase 'I miss Socialism, maybe...'; twenty-one second-hand monitors of various sizes, twenty-one films on DVD; felt-tip pen, handwritten text on wall, overall dimensions variable. Photo: Oak Taylor-Smith
I miss Socialism, maybe... 2010, wall painted in Chinese red, vinyl stickers; nine sofas presenting the nine Chinese characters constituting the phrase 'I miss Socialism, maybe...'; twenty-one second-hand monitors of various sizes, twenty-one films on DVD; felt-tip pen, handwritten text on wall, overall dimensions variable. Photo: Oak Taylor-Smith
I miss Socialism, maybe... 2010, wall painted in Chinese red, vinyl stickers; nine sofas presenting the nine Chinese characters constituting the phrase 'I miss Socialism, maybe...'; twenty-one second-hand monitors of various sizes, twenty-one films on DVD; felt-tip pen, handwritten text on wall, overall dimensions variable. Photo: Oak Taylor-Smith
A Bulgarian artist who, through his drawings, paintings, watercolours and installations recounts stories that tell about the contradictions of human existence.Nedko Solakov combines his traditional education with conceptual practices to create complex, multi-faceted and sharp-witted works. In 1981, he graduated in Mural Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts, Sofia, Bulgaria. He is a great storyteller, showing an unmistakably poetic desire for short narratives, aphorisms, comparative descriptions, plays on words and semantic double meanings that are the characteristic elements of his idiom.
In his wide variety of drawings, paintings, performances and installations, Solakov employs an ironic, metaphoric and poly-semantic style to analyse the role and contradictions inherent not only to the contemporary art system, but also to the collective "truths" and societal norms connected with the human existence. Working in installation, film, photography, painting, drawings and collecting, an important part of his practice, which contributes to his analytical and commenting style, is the artist’s wall writings. For these he writes on the wall or in the surrounding area, about his own work or a work of another artist. He often adds these wall writings to comment on the immediate environment, feeling or emotion the artist found himself in during the installation of the work or the exhibition.
In 2020 he had a solo show “Big&Small” at Galleria Continua, Les Moulins, France and he created the exhibition "The Artist-Collector’s Dream (a nice thing)” at Galleria Continua, San Gimignano. He also participated in the following exhibitions; “Alien v. Citizen”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA, “Performer and Participant”, Tate Modern, London, UK, and “Between the Sun and the Moon. Lahore Biennale 02”, Lahore, Pakistan. In 2019; “Cosmopolis #2”, Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR.
In 2018, he presented the exhibition “Paintings with No Texts and Stories on Walls” at the La Panacée MoCo in Montpellier, France, in 2017, “Stories in Colour” at Galleria Continua San Gimignano and in 2016 “Stories” at Georg Kargl Fine Arts in Vienna, Austria. In 2007 Nedko Solakov received an “Honourable Mention to an artist exhibited in the central international exhibition”, 52 La Biennale di Venezia, Venice.
Adel Abdessemed Etel Adnan Ai Weiwei Leila Alaoui Juan Araujo Kader Attia Barbana Bojadzi Daniel Buren Cai Guo-Qiang Alejandro Campins Iván Capote Yoan Capote Loris Cecchini Elizabet Cerviño Chen Zhen Nikhil Chopra Marcelo Cidade Carlos Cruz-Diez Jonathas de Andrade Berlinde De Bruyckere Leandro Erlich Carlos Garaicoa Osvaldo González Antony Gormley Gu Dexin Shilpa Gupta Subodh Gupta Carsten Höller Eva Jospin JR Ilya & Emilia Kabakov Zhanna Kadyrova Kan Xuan Anish Kapoor André Komatsu Jannis Kounellis Julio Le Parc Luis López-Chávez Jorge Macchi Ahmed Mater Cildo Meireles José Manuel Mesías Sabrina Mezzaqui Moataz Nasr Rudi Ninov Hans Op de Beeck Ornaghi & Prestinari Giovanni Ozzola Susana Pilar Michelangelo Pistoletto Qiu Zhijie Tobias Rehberger Arcangelo Sassolino Manuela Sedmach Serse Kiki Smith Nedko Solakov Marta Spagnoli José Antonio Suárez Londoño Hiroshi Sugimoto Sun Yuan & Peng Yu Ana Maria Tavares Pascale Marthine Tayou Armando Testa Nari Ward Sislej Xhafa José Yaque Zhuang Hui
