site.btaExhibition of Seven Nominees for BAZA Award for Contemporary Art Opens at Sofia City Art Gallery

An exhibition of artists nominated for the BAZA 2023 Award for Contemporary Art opens at the Sofia City Art Gallery on July 25, the gallery said. On display will be works by Alina Papazova, Ivelina Ivanova, Kalina Mavrodieva, Martian Tabakov, Nikola Grozdanov, Veronika Desova and Viktor Petrov.

It is a joint project of Sofia City Art Gallery, the Institute for Contemporary Art – Sofia, Edmond Demirdjian Foundation and the Lachezar Tsotsorkov Foundation in partnership with the Foundation for a Civil Society, New York, and the Young Visual Artists Awards international network.

The Young Artist Award was first established in 1990 in the Czech Republic by the founder of the Civil Society Foundation (USA), Wendy Luers, on the initiative of Vaclav Havel. Today, it exists in twelve Central and Eastern European countries, united in the YVAA International Young Visual Artist Awards Network (www.yvaawards.org). The award consists of a two-month artist residency at Residency Unlimited, New York, and a solo exhibition at the ICA-Sofia Gallery, the Sofia City Art Gallery said. 

The award is sponsored by the Trust for Mutual Understanding, New York.

The BAZA Award in Bulgaria was founded on the initiative of Maria Vassileva in 2008 and is administered by the Institute of Contemporary Art – Sofia and the Edmond Demirdjian Foundation. From 2021, the Lachezar Tsotsorkov Foundation supports the nominated artists with funding for their projects.

The competition is open to artists up to 35 years of age. The jury, whose members are replaced every two years, selects between four and eight nominees. The exhibition of works by the selected artists is hosted by Sofia City Art Gallery. The winner is announced during the exhibition opening.

Bulgarian BAZA Award winners thus far include: Rada Boukova (2008), Samuil Stoyanov (2009), Anton Terziev (2010), Vikenti Komitski (2011), Leda Ekimova (2012), Kiril Kuzmanov (2013), Zoran Georgiev (2014), Aleksandra Chaushova (2015), Dimitar Shopov (2016), Martina Vacheva (2017), Martin Penev (2018), Valko Chobanov (2019), Maria Nalbantova (2020), Marta Djourina (2021), Krasimira Butseva (2022).

The exhibition at the Sofia City Art Gallery will be on until September 6.