Heavy is the crown

To The Artworks

virtual collective exhibition of paintings and sculptures

09.04.2020 – 09.05.2020

Largo Art Gallery presents a virtual collective exhibition of paintings and sculptures: “Heavy is the crown” from April 09^th 2020. The exhibition can be viewed on the gallery's website and on our Instagram and Facebook profiles. We will be presenting artworks by contemporary Bulgarian artists - Ventsislav Markov, Vladimir Kirov, Dimitar Voynov Jr., Elisaveta Angelova, Krastyo Todorov - Keca, Milena Dimitrova - Lena, NikolaiAngelov - Gary, Nikolay Dobrev, Nikolay Nyagolov, Rosen Rashev – Roshpaka, Svilen Zhelyazkov,Snezhina Popgencheva, Sofia Nikolova, Stefan Georgiev, Tatiana Harizanova, Tsvetan Kazandzhiev. We will also see some works by the Turkish artist Hikmet Cetinkaya.

We named our latest project “Heavy is the crown”, looking for an intersection with the recent hot topic. But we do not want to fit into the intonational environment we have lately. There are times of prosperity and times of hardship and deprivation in human life. There are times of ascension of the human spirit and times of fall and desolation. While humankind is going through a crisis - war, pandemic, economic crisis, environmental or natural disaster, the best and worst examples of leaders, those who bear the "heavy crown", come to light. It is not uncommon for us to wait for the distance and the scale of time to be able to understand whether the leaders in society have been able to cope and bear this burden. But each of us also carries “the weight of the crown”, in our shorter or longer lives. Filled with meaning and dedicated to others, or filled with the thirst for consumption, recieving and possession, and dedicated to oneself - everyone makes their own choice. The weight of our decisions cannot be carried by anyone else than us. But in the harsh and surreal days of the last few weeks, most people, poor and rich, educated and uneducated, sick and healthy, we all remembered the often forgotten truth of most of us. A truth that has been shining through the world, artists have been constantly trying to remind us through their works - that we can’t buy the most important things in life and that we only appreciate their value when they are taken away from us. Freedom, love, health, closeness, connection with nature. We take all this for granted, but do we really? Our confidence in our own infallibility, our omnipotence, the delusional illusion that we are eternal in this world, were shattered to dust and dust by an invisible enemy. An enemy who reminded us of the ancient Latin sentiment “Memento Mori” - “Remember that you are dead”. So, in these days of isolation we can stop rushing through life and constantly look at our clock. We can stop checking our email and social media wall 100 times a day. We can try and listen to the person next to us. We can find all the time in the world to answer the countless questions of the little man who looks down at us. We can sink into timelessness, cloud gazing, listen to your favorite music or look at your favorite painting. Let's go back to the important and meaningful things. Because the crisis will soon end and we will rush out and live to the fullest again. And this forced timelessness will never come back. For pity or for joy.

Largo Gallery invites you to view some of this priceless time with paintings by our wonderful Bulgarian artists, who with this exhibition have no reminder: "you remember you will die, but do not forget, that life is good."

In part of the paintings of Nikolai Angelov - Gary we will discover the sharp satire of our society and our "values". Here is Eve, from The New People, a box in her hands that is filled with material possessions, here is the little matchmaker from the picture "Life in a palm", which hides in her hands not the light of the match, but the "light" from mobile phone screen. The picture "Buy more, save the world" has no need to comment, the message is more than clear. In the artworks of his wife, Elisaveta Angelova will also discover social satire and discuss the problems of our time - the illusory dreams of the princess, the elimination of the view of the stars, dressed in poor clothing or a skirt made out of cabbage, a nod to the discrepancy between chance and desire.

We will painfully experiencethrough the pictures of the incredibly talented Tatiana Harizanova a state of human loneliness, longing for nearness, emptiness and lack that sometimes uses our lives. Melancholy and a little loneliness will be found in some of the paintings of Vladimir Kirov. He is a well-known portrait painter full of insightful and subtle psychology of image.

Loneliness can also be seen in one of the works of Krastyo Todorov - Keca, where we can see the empty streets of the big city.

On the other hand, some of the artworks fill us with hope and reassurance, that everything will get better. That even the darkest night is followed by the bright sun and that even in our most lonely and sad moments, someone is thinking of us and somebody’s heart is beating for us.

The paintings of the irrepressible optimist and soul healer Rosen Rashev - Roshpaka will put a smile on our faces with “The sunny family of the tailor”, with "Keeper of the Legged Fish" and a portrait of "Two Touching Souls". Light pastel flowers, large, voluminous figures filled with pulsating life will fill us with joy and reverence for the power of life.

Landscapes of another talented Bulgarian artist - Nikolay Dobrev, are filled with wind and light- things very characteristic about Nikolay’s artworks. His landscapes remind us that summer is coming and the sun and sea will heal our souls with the sun’s kiss, blue skies and the sound of the salty sea waves.

Freedom is something that pours out from the sculptures of the young talented artist Ventsislav Markov. Whether embodied in the ride of the horses or in the flight of the proud eagle, this is one of the artist’s most favorite themes. Maybe it’s  because right now one of the most important and precious things to our young generation is freedom. Another topic that is relevant these days…

The love for freedom and being surrounded by nature, the purely human desire to merge with it, can be seen in the beautiful landscapes of the young Milena Dimitrova - Lena and in the famous poppies of the Turkish painter Hikmet Cetinkaya.

For artists like Dimitar Voynov Jr. and Sofia Nikolova beauty is what will save the world, and they see it in the beauty of the woman, mysterious and gentle, sensitive and tempting.

In the artworks of two of Nikolay Nyagolov and Tsvetan Kazandzhiev we will find freedom in communication with outer space and the ways of the immortal human soul.

Finally, Stefan Georgiev’s paintings remind us of the approaching Easter holiday and that when every hope is lost, faith in God is what will get us through these hard times and bring us out of the darkness of despair and fear.  The resurrection of the Son of God is the brightest holiday in the lives of Christians. It is a holiday not only of faith, it is a holiday of hope, of humanity, of patience, of sacrifice. All the qualities that may be needed right now in these times.

So, in this exhibition in a part of the artworks we will find the materialized thoughts of the artists on today’s pains and problems of public society - greed, pursuit of false values, pursuit of meaningless goals, loneliness and alienation, distance and social isolation. But as a counterbalance and counterpoint to these themes in some of the other artworks we will find the open life-affirming and optimistic themes - about love, intimacy, the pursuit of freedom, faith and hope, the fields of imagination and the pursuit of perfection of a free human spirit.

You can see the exhibition on our website at www.largogallery.com, the Instagram profile site at https://www.instagram.com/largogallery/, and our Facebook page at https: // www. facebook.com/ArtGalleryLargo. The exhibition runs from 09.04.20 – 09.05.2020.

Nelly Valcheva, Director