Metal Art Goes on Display at Sofia’s Academia Gallery

UPDATED Metal Art Goes on Display at Sofia’s Academia Gallery

Lyubomir Gigov

The Metal Art Department of Sofia's National Academy of Art opened an exhibition of its students' works on January 6 (BTA Photo/Milena Stoykova)

Sofia,

06.01.2025 18:46 | UPDATED 06.01.2025 19:50

(BTA)

The best metal artworks created by students of the National Academy of Art (NAA) over the last eight years can be seen in an exhibition that opened at Sofia's Academia Gallery on Monday and will be on until January 19.

The event marks 33 years since the establishment of the NAA Metal Art Department. It brings to an end a two-year project which has involved a series of workshops and a conference on metal plastic art. A catalogue of the exhibits was presented during the opening ceremony.

The NAA Metal Art Department was set up in 1991, and initially had Assoc. Prof. Georgi Chapkanov as the only teacher in the main subjects: Metal and Composition. He was joined by the country’s top experts in various metal art divisions in a teaching team that gradually evolved in the 1990s.

By 2024, the department awarded bachelor's degrees to more than 250 students, master's degrees to 120, and doctoral degrees to 9. As the only department of its kind in Bulgaria (and a traditional one in almost all European higher schools of art), the Metal Art Department at the NAA has been true to its mission to provide education in the spatial arts not only to artists but also to teachers and researchers.

"Today we are showing one of the youngest departments and specialties at the NAA with their innovative, new, bold, fantastic solutions," said the NAA Rector, Prof. Georgi Yankov, during the opening of the exhibition on Monday evening.

"The project shows student works at a very high level - from metal sculpture, jewelry to larger-scale works in metal and material," the Vice Rector for Artistic and Creative Activity, Prof. Dr Zdravka Vassileva, pointed out for her part.

The Dean of the Faculty of Applied Arts and Design, Prof. Dr Arsen Minkov, noted that the Metal specialty is completely forward-looking. "It really takes a lot of imagination, a lot of hard work to achieve what is presented to us today," he said.

The head of the Metal Department, Assoc. Prof. Emil Bachiiski, listed Prof. Ivan Slavov, Prof. Dimitar Delchev, Prof. Veleslav Minekov and Prof. Bogomil Nikolov among the former faculty members. "Each of these lecturers carved out his own niche, his own studio," Bachiiski explained. "One of the good things about our department is continuity, passing the torch from one generation to another," he added.

/LG/