"THE (IM)POSSIBLE COMING HOME" OR THE ARTIST’S WAY BETWEEN CHICAGO AND SOFIA
събота, 1 юни 2019
Painting Exhibition
VASILEN VASEVSKI
„Open your mind... Life is a journey of spiritual awakening.„
Vasilen Vasevski
Coming home as an expectation, coming home as a mirage ...Coming home with open senses for new knowledge and new emotions! That feeling that comes over to the artist walking back into his Homeland. It can bring impulses of creative inspiration, but it can also bring sadness of the meeting with the Homeland as distances are a daily experience and an expectation of coming home.
Looking at the artworks of Vasilen Vasevski, a Bulgarian artist who has been living and working in Chicago for twenty years, the delicate profile of a man stepping into his "land" stands out. But he is coming back after getting that dreamt peace of mind, by which he has been flying off and "feeling happy", filled with hope and light. He has gone through a long journey to himself and to his self-awakening; he depicts pastoral picturesque sceneries, full of universal values of unity, power of beauty, importance of ancient and native.
Vasilen Vasevski belongs to the category of artists circulating artistic nomads in the contemporary Bulgarian art, who contribute significantly to the enrichment of the cultural scene both in Bulgaria and in Chicago. Or put metaphorically, by this exhibition, the "global nomad" comes "home" in the most creative way to present the fruits of his own original "garden of peace", as he defines it. Strong but gentle light - real and powerful - springs out of these picturesque revelations.
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In the inspirational American movie "Stop-Loss", the focus is placed on the most important universal values - the value of family, friendship, honesty and morality. In an unique way, Vasevski's work has embedded similar subjects and themes, namely, the family cosiness, tranquillity, tenderness and love, painted and warmed by the power of light. And it is found, captured and expressed with ease. Soft colours, oval forms of the movements and gentle rhythm in the paintings of Vasevski are the expression of the intentional (im!)possible coming home and the journey of self-discovery. Expected and experienced every day and every minute beyond the Ocean for years on end. Coming home is not as far away as it seems geographically defined - thousands of kilometres - coming home is every day coming in the family, in the carefully kept image of Bulgaria, in the meeting with the loved ones who support the artist and bestow all their love to him – the love so necessary for new creative inspiration and direction.
Vasilen Vasevski is a professor at the Illinois University of Art, Chicago, USA, one of the participants in the exhibition titled "So close, so far" in 2014. He was born in Sliven in 1969 in a family of intellectuals who has built the favourable environment for the development of his creative personality.
In 1997 he graduated from the National Academy of Arts in Sofia acquiring a degree in Painting, and in 2003 he completed his specialization in Commercial Arts at the Indiana - Pardew University, Fort Wayne, USA. He has participated in numerous exhibitions in various galleries and museums in the USA, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Austria and Bulgaria. He has won several awards, including the Illinois Council of Arts Award (2007 and 2009), the Skokie Art Guild Award, USA (2013), and the Union of Bulgarian Journalists Award (2015)
The exhibition will be opened on 11th (Tuesday) June at 18:30 by prof. Chavdar Popov, Doctor of Art Studies, who has written a special biographical book about the artist "In search of the elusive light, the art of Vasilen Vasevski".
Gallery for Contemporary Art Sofia, 2, Budapeshta Street, Arena di Serdica Hotel, Art Director Tsvetelina Rusalieva
The event is organized with the support and partnership of the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad and Association "So Close, So Far"
www.aba.governement.bg