Milko Pavlov (b. 1956) is a Bulgarian artist who lives and works between Berlin and Sofia. In 1961, his family moved to the capital. In 1976, he decided not to apply to the National Academy of Arts, and between 1978 and 1983, he trained in private art studios under various teachers.
In 1983, he participated for the first time in a group exhibition of the Union of Bulgarian Artists with watercolors and oil paintings. In 1988, he received a diploma from the IV International Competition for Young Artists in Sofia and created his first graphic works. He has been a member of the Union of Bulgarian Artists since 1990.
In 1991, he co-founded the “Club of the Eternally Young Artist” and began working with painterly objects. That same year, he received an ARTEST grant from the BINZ 39 Foundation in Zurich and created his first sand paintings. In 1993, he worked on a project for the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Cologne, Germany, where he began creating works with paper pulp and artist’s books.
Between 1997 and 1998, he was an artist-in-residence at Künstlerhäuser Worpswede in Germany, where he created his first large-format graphite frottages on paper. In 1997, he received an award for drawing from the Foundation for the Support of Art in Bulgaria, as well as an award from Tama Art University in Tokyo.
Between 1999 and 2005, he lived and worked between Bremen and Sofia, during which time he began to develop the theme of the so-called “unfinished future,” which gradually became central to his artistic practice. Since 2008, he has lived and worked between Berlin and Sofia.
In recent years, he has participated in international exhibition projects, including the group exhibition “Illusive Places” at Pace Gallery, Seoul (2024). In 2025, he presented the solo exhibition “Random Encounters in Stoppage Time” at the Sofia Arsenal – Museum of Contemporary Art.
