TRESOR Group Exhibition – Painting and Sculpture 04.04.2024 – 07.05.2024 The exhibition presents a dialogue between two artists who, through their practice, explore themes of materialistic desire, aesthetics, and the construction of value. “Tresor” is a zone in which objects and trends are symbolically stored—raising questions about the fetishization of objects and symbols from our everyday lives. Deyan Valkov works with oils and organic materials to create paintings that invite emotional and spiritual contemplation. He is an intuitive artist who works through the application of marks, building and dismantling, layering color upon color until the image emerges. His themes are figurative. His intention is to provoke a narrative from sensory memory. He says: “I never start with a specific idea. I begin with an impulse, a gesture, a color—something I respond to emotionally, the way a listener responds in conversation. The stories evolve and change as I work. Often my work is also a conversation with myself.” Ina Vasileva–INA is an artist working within the post-feminist artistic sphere. The scope of her practice includes sculpture, performance, installation, and painting, and she often uses materials and processes associated with early Conceptualism, Pop Art, and Minimalism. INA’s diverse practice spans different media and references, including clothing, accessories, and cosmetics, drawing, painting, and icons of modern art. In her objects, she emphasizes the valorization of surface appearance and female beauty, while the interplay of gender expectations within her works calls into question the boundaries of femininity. In her expansive artistic universe, everything is a source of inspiration and inquiry. She critically reflects on broader anxieties about temporality and permanence, and on the fleeting nature of value in contemporary society, in which objects and trends quickly become obsolete. INA poses themes for reflection on systemic, internalized cultural values, prompting a deeper inquiry into our contemporary notions of gender and the role of women. Desislava Zafirova, curator
