site.btaWorks by Stanimir Zhelev Go on Display at Bulgarian Cultural Institute in Berlin

An exhibition,"Icons and Painting", by Stanimir Zhelev opened at the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in Berlin ahead of Christmas Eve, the Institute said on its Facebook page.

The exhibition was blessed by Metropolitan Anthony of Western and Central Europe and was opened in his presence.

The Institute added that the opening was attended by many Bulgarians and Germans interested in religious paintings. Bulgarian Ambassador to Germany Grigor Porozhanov was also present.

The exhibition, curated by Olympia Nikolova-Daniel, is part of a joint project of BCI-Berlin, the Ilia Petrov National School of Fine Arts in Sofia and Debut Gallery. It will be on until January 23, 2025.

Earlier, the Institute quoted Olympia Nikolova-Daniel as saying: "The exhibition is a visual essay that attempts to make sense of and poeticize the 'wounds' that time, people and nature inflict on the faces and bodies of images of figures canonized as saints.”

Stanimir Zhelev is an artist who has been exploring the heritage of Bulgarian religious painting for decades. Entering the rock-hewn monasteries in Ivanovo, founded in the 12th century and surviving to the present day, the artist opens a new field in which he methodically documents remnants, silhouettes, shadows of images from the original frescoes, mixed with the ravages of vandalism, natural cataclysms, graffiti.

Stanimir Zhelev graduated from the Kazanlak Art High School and the National Academy of Arts in Sofia with a degree in painting under Prof. Svetlin Rusev. He has exhibitions in Sofia, Castres, Varna, Rome, Namur, Plovdiv, Zurich, Burgas. His works are in private collections in Bulgaria, France, Canada, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, and Switzerland. He teaches painting at the Ilia Petrov National School of Fine Arts in Sofia.