Nedko Solakov -- Stories on Paper

Since the 1980s, Solakov tells timeless stories of universal vastness, initially through paintings and over time expanding his artistic vocabulary into drawings and installations. “I am telling stories in space” - to quote the artist - by doing so, he developed an unmistakably unique style. The sophisticated yet subtle relation with distinct contexts by using means of articulation, achieves a profundity not to be underestimated. In his work, text and image create their own artistic conception. They are neither descriptions nor illustrations, but the core elements of his art that go hand in hand.

In order to face the inadequacy of the world and of humankind in general, we are able to channel difficulties and adversities with humor. Nedko Solakov makes use of this tool throughout his works either as crisis management, as a collective practice of resolving contradictions, as situational comedy or as philosophical practice without any particular empirical application. Within his narrations, he allows humor to be funny, melancholic, saddening, and sometimes cynical, as the dark kind of humor also enlightens.  

In the series Smart Moves, A Beauty on Stand-by, Leftovers from Fairy Tales’ Discarded Parts and the single drawings from Stories in Colour, Solakov addresses various topics without omitting a taboo. Each of the series and the selected drawings unfold kaleidoscopically, either through the question of action and consequence, the silent state of waiting, or by asking the unblurred truth of what happens after the sentence “… and they lived happily ever after.”

Since the early 1990s, Nedko Solakov (b. 1957, Cherven Bryag, Bulgaria; lives in Sofia) has exhibited extensively in Europe and the US. His work was featured in Aperto’93 (Venice Biennial); the 48^th, 49^th, 50^th and 52^nd Venice Biennial; the 3^rd, 4^th and 9^th Istanbul Biennial; São Paulo’94; Manifesta 1, Rotterdam; the 2^nd and 4^th Gwangju Biennial; the 5^th Lyon Biennial; Sonsbeek 9, Arnhem; the 4^th and 5^th Cetinje Biennial; the 1^st Lodz Biennial; the 7^th Sharjah Biennial, United Arab Emirates; the 3^rd Tirana Biennial; the 2^nd Seville Biennial; the 2^nd Moscow Biennial; documenta 12; 16^th Sydney Biennial; Prospect 1, New Orleans Biennial; Singapore Biennial 2011; dOCUMENTA (13); Kathmandu Triennale; 1st Riga International Biennial for Contemporary Art and Lahore Biennale 2. He had solo shows at Museu do Chiado, Lisbon; Stichting De Appel, Amsterdam; CCA Kitakyushu, Japan; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Centre d’Art Santa Monica, Barcelona; Kunsthaus Zurich; Castello di Rivoli, Rivoli; Sofia City Art Gallery; Galleria Borghese, Rome; Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg; BOZAR, Brussels; ICA Sofia, La Panacée, Montpellier, Mudam Luxembourg, Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, and MAXXI - National Museum of 21st Century Art, Rome. In 2003-2005 an extensive mid-career "A 12 1/3 (and even more) Year Survey" was presented at Casino Luxembourg, Rooseum Malmoe and O.K Centrum Linz, and in 2008-2009 the “Emotions” solo project was exhibited at Kunstmuseum Bonn, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, and Institut Mathildenhoehe, Darmstadt. In 2011-2012 his retrospective “All in Order, with Exceptions” was presented at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; Fondazione Galleria Civica Trento (“All in (My) Order, with Exceptions”), S.M.A.K., Ghent and Fundação de Serralves, Porto. His works belong to more than fifty international museums and public collections, among them MoMA New York, Tate Modern, London and Center Pompidou, Paris.