Tocka

Drawings by Elena Panayotova
 

ELENA PANAYOTOVA
1964 born in Sofia, Bulgaria. Lives and works in Sofia.
Education: 1983-89 – Academy of Fine Arts, Sofia. M.A. in Painting, 1978-83 – High School of Fine Arts, Sofia. Member of the Union Of Bulgarian Artists from 1997.

Works in the collections of: National Art Gallery Sofia, Municipal Art Gallery Sofia (Bulgaria); Art Gallery, Balchik (Bulgaria); Arizona University, School Of Fine Arts (USA); MGLC (International Graphics Center), Ljubljana (Slovenia); Bokartas collection, Vilnius (Lithuania) (www.arts.lt); Cultural center “Les Subsistances”, Lyon (France) (www.les-subsistances.com); private collections in Bulgaria, Germany, France, Israel, Switzerland, Turkey, Italy, Austria, Rumania a.o.

Address: 30, Patriarch Evtimi Blv. BG - 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria
tel.: +359.2. 981 38 87, 868 30 62; cell +359.(0) 888.79 54 20
e-mail: nefertiti@poshta.net; elenkata1@hotmail.com
 

          

One-woman Shows:

2004 Truth Is Not Beauty, Cultural center Tocka, Skopje (Macedonia); We Are Equal (States of Freedom), Irida Gallery, Sofia (Bulgaria);
2003 Constructed Beauty, Kunstverein, Baden (Austria) (with Claudia-Maria Luenig); 9. October, Art 36 Gallery, Sofia (Bulgaria) (with Bojidar Bonchev);
2002 hotmail.ep (private correspondence), Art 36 gallery, Sofia (Bulgaria); Municipal Art Gallery, Pleven (Bulgaria); No Need to Explain, Foto Fakt Gallery, Skopje (Macedonia), Drawings, Vita Gallery, Bern (Switzerland); States of Freedom, Museumsquartier, MQ 21, Vienna (Austria) (www.kulturkontakt.or.at);
1999 The Lucid Dreams Of My Grandmothers, Kaire-Desine Gallery, Vilnius (Lithuania);
1998 Games With Colors, TED Gallery, Varna (Bulgaria); A Bit In Jest, A Bit In Earnest, AVE Gallery, Sofia (Bulgaria);
1997 The World After Nora, Ata-ray Gallery, Sofia (Bulgaria); Works On And Out Of Paper, Embassy of Switzerland, Sofia (Bulgaria);
1996 Domestic Objects, Art 36 Gallery, Sofia (Bulgaria);
1994 After Balchik, Art 36 Gallery, Sofia (Bulgaria);  Silence & Sounds, Bavarian-Bulgarian Trade Bank, Munich (Germany);
1993 Paintings & Drawings, Industria Gallery, Wuppertal (Germany);
1991 Silent Music – Art 36 Gallery, Sofia (Bulgaria);
1989 Fabrics And Prints – Municipal Art Gallery, Balchik (Bulgaria).


from Maja Cankulovska review:

The artworks of the Bulgarian painters Elena Panayotova, could be described as formally non-pretensional, that without additional commentaries immediately keeps our attention with its good willed mockery and freshness. Educated as a painter, she is working with the same accuracy in two confronted media: seemingly timeless drawings with pencil and joyfully colored installations on ordinary objects, and recently, photography. Her works are melancholic and refer to the safety of the home; and placed in a gallery space; obtain form of a search for emotionally safe world. They are often different from each other, despite every expectation, not in a sense of creative discontinuing, but in direction of avoiding the traps of solving already solved problems.
Elena Panayotova is interested for the natural rhythm of shapes, light and shadow, ornaments and forms and tries, in a gentle way, to challenge the viewer to mobilize all the feelings, thoughts, fantasy and memory. She uses different, mainly "old" techniques - pencil, distemper, hand painted photography, sewing and embroidering, which demand technical knowledge, and great patience in producing the artwork.
Elena Panayotova's accuracy comes to its expression in the big encyclopedia drawings (The Lucid Dreams of My Grandmothers) and series of anatomic drawings (Knowledge Is Not Wisdom, Wisdom Is Not Truth, Truth is Not Beauty and Tractus gastrointestinalis, I love you, I hate you). Here she confronts spiritual and physical needs, i.e. interprets facts deeper than science does.
Elements and objects in the works of this author get sacral meaning. Drawings tell stories about fantasy world, actors are positioned in form of illusive scenery, but contrary to the theatre, they do not move and do not speak. Customized characters are static, embrace their musical instruments or contemplated and staring in distance with frozen glances. Classically drawn heads give the impression of early renascence frescoes, the mosaic of the ornamental setting and the clothes look like Viennese Secession, the manner of drifting color refers to the atmosphere of Byzantine icons, intersected with everyday surrounding details. Different cultural traditions are basic for Elena Panayotova's works - she combines various styles to create new eclectic world which is framed exclusively from her imagination with contemporary sarcastic melancholy.