Portals

September 13th - October 1st 2016

Vesko Velev is well known for his artistic presence and established, clearly recognizable style. In his present exhibition, the artist skillfully interweaves the symbolism of Christianity with a contemporary sense of tradition to open invisible portals in time - portals leading to a possible otherworld, to other dimensions and conditions.

_________________________________________

Vesko Velev is an authentic Balkan artist. When, about 30 years ago, I saw his works for the first time, they drew me in with the purity of their creative impulse. Since then, Vesko Velev’s presence in the artistic world has been unobtrusive, but permanent.

Through his works Vesko Velev discovers our land, but he does it without following scholarly rules or juggling with the decorative attributes of the native. He is simply present here, reacting to everything around him through his humanized senses. His touch does not find textures, but evokes thoughts and sounds. His paints – at times bright, other times fading into monochrome – send us off into poetic orbits. His hearing perceives in the imagery the song of a wagon’s wheels. He is attracted not by the forms of the grass and fruits, but by their natural sweetness.

In this total sensory attunement, one can hear the animated flesh. And this is the most fragile and vulnerable position for an artist. How can you be positive that you are going to find a receptive soul on the other side?
The artist’s latest works, collected in this exhibition, take me back to those first impressions. Because Vesko Velev has stayed true to himself.
And I am very glad. In a world, in which feelings have seemingly irrevocably lost their value, Vesko Velev’s art brings hope. He opposes the sophisticated conceptions that conceal an absence of creativity with an innate and ingenious surrender to nature, a joy derived from birds, flowers, poems, revelations, and living memory, encrypted in the antiquities.

I have always thought that our land has an abundance of artists precisely because of that sensitivity. Vesko Velev is a warm artist. Hanging clusters of grapes, fascicular country flowers, the shadows they cast on the walls – he has an eye for them and a soul to go beyond their physical borders. That hypersensitivity allows him to recognize in the ancient frescoes, painted carts, and stone walls past excitements, the breath of a life – here and beyond.

In the same vein, I interpret the holy images that pass through Vesko Velev’s paintings like mirages. They are like incorporeal shadows, but are also important signs, indelible from our being. Foreign to the canonical iconography, they simply guide us beyond that, which is visible, and prudently remind us of the boundless reach of man.

Luckily, the artist’s imagery, elevated above the material, does not sever the umbilical cord to the world around us. Indeed, it is in that charming borderline that the impact of his painting lies. His geometry is far from cold linearity; the contours and pulsations of its color spots make it vivid, invocative of memories and dreams.

In the general direction of his work, Vesko Velev is close to many of his generation. This is a strong generation in Bulgarian art, unencumbered by past dogmas nor by fights against them. Artists from that period are guided by their revelations. It does not matter that these revelations have long been known; the artists follow them not as epigones, but with enthusiasm and inspiration. Among them Vesko Velev is probably one of the most spontaneous and unpredictably intuitive.
How will we know him if we don’t immediately spot his signature, with its calligraphic double “B” (read V), a reference to the East. His brush flies: it seems an angel has flown above, leaving a trace with his wing on the canvas or the board. He doesn’t press, doesn’t insist on imprinting a preconceived image. That is why his forms float, play, submerge and appear again. And that is the source of the charming magic of his works. Besides, he does not aestheticize, nor does he admire the results. He just breathes through these emotions that emerge from unknown places.

And that is how his world multiplies. His works are big and small; in oil or watercolor; in hues that connect them to the earth, which gives birth to every soul, or sometimes explosively colorful. Or white. I love the whiteness in Vesko’s paintings. There is flight toward the divine in them.
Recently, similarly to some of his colleagues, he has taken a dive into plastic arts. He wants to feel what and how creation comes when clay meets fire. I look forward to also seeing these new works.
Vesko Velev has isolated himself on his estate in the village of Dalbok Dol. There – among the abundant greenery, by two hundred-year-old houses – he listens to himself. In a world whose foundations have been shaken, which mercilessly bombards our minds with horrors and nightmares, he has found a harbor and lives in his paradise, listening to nature’s music. In this choice there is both courage and wisdom. And a lot of kindness. I respect him for it.

Is Vesko Velev lyrically or philosophically attuned? Neither of those. We are unable to recount his plastic metaphors. Spectral visions from other worlds, his images are captivated by real, earthy touches. They reconcile sorrow and joy, reflection and anxiety.
For the hasty and inattentive eye, some of Vesko Velev’s works may even look careless. But this would be a rather superficial impression. It is true that they test our perception of instantaneousness. But are we capable of feeling and comprehending its value?

Интервю на Юлия Петрова за програма "Христо Ботев", БНР

Разговор с Веско Велев и доц. Ружа Маринска за "Рецепта за култура".

                                                                                              Prof. Ruzha Marinska