Balkan Culture

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Le Papillon Art Gallery
is pleased to present

Dolores Dilova

"In That Time"
Painting Exhibition
from August 29th to September 18th, 2024

Opening
Thursday 28/08/2024 from 6:00 p.m.
Varna, 12 Dragoman St.

 

"No time belongs to you; no place is yours. What you seek does not seek you, what you dream does not dream you. You know something was yours in another place and time because you keep crossing past rooms and days. But if you are in the right place, the time is different. If you are in the right time, the place is different.”  Georgy Gospodinov

 

With great pleasure, from August 29th to September 18th, 2024, in the space of the Art Gallery Le Papillon, with the ethereal painting canvases of the colorful artist Dolores Dilova, we embark on a journey "In that time", preserving the complete harmony of a fleeting moment and the revelation of humility before the perfection of nature. The picturesque sincere sharing of the emotionally sealed sensations from specific places close to the soul of the author reveals each time by a different parabola of shades and intensity of the color range of her impressionistic statement. Minimalistic and devoid of chatter, the laconic means of expression of Dolores Dilova mark a return to herself and the inner balance of her sensitive nature. The passionate and vibrant ultramarine, the pulse of cobalt and royal blue, constant tones of her previous works, now pass into a soft and quiet turquoise, a muted almost emerald blue-green, an even sand color and a fluffy burgundy. The turquoise of the sea, the cobalt of the night sky are a thin line, accents concentrating the gaze on the horizon. The transparent burgundy red of a heavily draped curtain hinting at the human presence with pale pink hues flows into a compositional musical harmony with sandy gray and ocher, where beach tracks lead to a violet sea. "At that time" the symbol of light from transparent bubbles of stringed lights and the halo of stars, create a sense of celebration, but not the laud one, filled with noise and fireworks, but that of silence in our soul, when the complete tranquility of contemplation hugs us in softness. The artist creates the magic of timelessness with ease, without waste of paint and aggressiveness of the relief, and by means of contrasting the gentleness of the sea and colorful strokes - accents. These short brushstrokes are reminiscent of bright kites or perhaps cheerful flying thoughts. The contrast of the motley deckchairs or the colorful, albeit closed, umbrellas against the gentle sandy tracks reminds us of the cyclicality in life and the need for this rhythm of alternation of noise and silence, of sharing following solitude. "That time" is not only personal for Dolores, it left a mark and an imprint on her emotional memories. It is also ours, because each of us returns mentally with pleasure to the Zen moments stored in memory or to its canvases that inevitably bring us back there. Not for the first time, Dolores Dilova takes us around her corners of comfort and beauty and shows us natural sights close to her heart. The main character in her canvases is the horizon of the sea or that of the mountain, and their function is to lead us to levitation above things and to the feeling of perfect balance, causing inner catharsis. Bright, sparkling tones give way to pastel, almost transparent shades. Fiery sunsets are replaced by gentle, romantically hinted outlines of the setting sun amid the sea horizon. Even the beloved turquoise has a muted sound and without dominating, it gives depth and subtly merges with the masterfully selected color.

Dolores Dilova's canvases magnetically attract the eye, absorb the focus and instill a sense of humility. And there on a lonely beach, lit by the caressing tones of the setting sun, before the horizon of the morning cool and boundless sea, comes the insight that all one needs at this moment is silence. It is this minimalism that evokes desires for the contemplation of beauty, it also proves the point of appreciating the value of the moment and the feeling of divinity, even creating an aspiration for everyone to finish the started story.

At first sight, beautiful, aesthetic and well thought out, her paintings actually have a deep emotional layer. Developing as an artist, enriching her emotions and upgrading herself as a creator, inheriting the worldview and lessons of her father - the bright impressionist Dilo Dilov, she explores nature as the main source of inspiration, beauty and harmony, creating emotional portraits of landscapes. Her paintings are not just expressive compositions with unusual light, with contrasts of prevailing bright, tidally applied colors that bathe them in mysticism, but an implication of the feelings collected in her, provoked by a given landscape, a concentrate of the sealed moment. They are a kind of self-portrait of a stage of time and experienced emotions.

As Academician Svetlin Rusev says about her: "It is about that painting where the element of color covers the possibilities of other means of expression, about that painting that turns the picture into a home of color, of its magnetic power and might." Whether she will start from nature or from the appearances of the material world - everything about Dolores brings the tension and high degrees of true creativity uneasiness both as an experience and as a plastic expression.”

And she explains her artistic goal like this: "The artist paints not only what has in front oneself, but also what one sees in oneself. I chase the feeling of my harmony in the turquoise seas, the deserted beaches, the gathered umbrellas, the silver sunsets behind the beloved house on the shore. I want to absorb all this nature and beauty in one breath, burn it in my soul as if in a furnace and turn it into my world in my paintings."

 

Welcome to the opening of the exhibition on 29.08.2024 / Thursday / at 18:00 in the exhibition hall of Art Gallery Le Papillon,  when in the company of Dolores Dilova we will be transported "In that time" to serene silence, to purification and pure joy!

The exhibition can be seen from August 29, 2024 in the exhibition hall of the gallery in Varna, 12 Dragoman Street and, and can also be viewed on the website artpapillon.com or fb: Le Papillon Art Gallery.

 

BIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCE

Dolores Dilova is born in 1960 in Pleven. She is the daughter of the famous Pleven artist Dilo Dilov - one of the brightest representatives of Impressionism in Bulgarian art. Inheriting her father's worldview and talent, at the age of seven she won a prize in a children's drawing competition in Italy, with Henry Moore as chairman of the jury.

Dolores Dilova graduated from the Academy of Arts - Sofia, majoring in painting with Prof. Ivan Kirkov. She has participated in exhibitions in Austria, France, USA, Russia, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Hungary and others. Solo exhibitions: Sofia - 1989, 1992, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2008, 2010, Paris (France) - 1992, 1993, 2002, Kansas City (USA) - 1993, 2000, Aosta (Italy) - 1994, Drama) - 1998, Berlin (Germany) 2001, Amsterdam (Netherlands) - 2004, London (Great Britain) - 2009, Moscow (Russia) - 2009, Hangzhou, (China) - 2014, Belgrade (Serbia) - 2017, and others.

Dolores Dilova is the winner of the first prize in the competition "Young Painter" - 1987 and the prize of the competition "Man and the Sea" - 1988, the Grand Prize of the Union of Bulgarian Artists at the Biennale of Small Form, 2008, the Grand Prize for Painting of Biannale "Friends of the Sea", Burgas 2014. She granted copyright to her paintings in a mansion in Portland USA for the filming of the Hollywood film production"The Picture" starring Nicholas Cage. She was chosen in the album "Fifty Women in Bulgarian Painting" for the period XIX-XX centuries, sponsored by the Russian prince Nikita Lobanov-Rostovsky.

Her works are in the National Gallery of Fine Arts and other galleries in the country, as well as in private galleries and collections in France, England, Italy, Germany, Japan, Israel, USA, Spain, Austria, Greece, Turkey, Hungary, Cyprus, Switzerland, Russia, China, Slovakia, the Netherlands, etc.

In 1993 she founded and become a lecturer at the Jules Pasquin Private Academy of Fine Arts. In 1997 she won a competition and specialized in Paris, France. Since 2011 she has been a member of the Board of the Union of Bulgarian Artists and Chairman of the Board of the Foundation "Maintenance of Art in Bulgaria."

Dolores Dilova lives and works in Sofia.

 

Exhibitions 2024-1992

2024 - Art Center, Pleven

2023, 2018 - "U P.A. R. K" Gallery, Plovdiv

2022 - Dyakov Gallery, Plovdiv

2021 - Atelier R Gallery, Burgas

2021, 2015 - Le Papillon Art Gallery, Varna

2020 - Shipka 6 Gallery, Sofia

2020 - "Dyakov" Gallery, Plovdiv

2019 - "Spring" Gallery, Burgas

2019 - "STUBEL" Gallery, Sofia

2018 - "Art Meeting" Gallery, Varna

2017 - "Nuance" Gallery, Sofia

2017-"Horseshoe" Gallery, Belgrade, Serbia

2015 - Forum Art Gallery, Sofia

2014 - Contemporary Bulgarian Art, Hangzhou, China

2014 - Arte Gallery, Sofia

2013 - "L'Union" Gallery, Plovdiv

2012 - "Astry" Gallery, Sofia

2012 - Gallery "Rakursi", Sofia

2011 - City Gallery of Bourgas

2011 - AR Gallery. Aleksiev", Sofia

2010 - Exhibition "Contemporary Bulgarian Art", Coburg, Germany

2010 - "Sredets" Gallery, Ministry of Culture, Sofia

2009 - "Gallery 8", Varna

2009 - Bulgarian embassy, ​​London, UK

2008 - "J. Papazov" Gallery, Plovdiv

2006 - "Loran" Gallery, Sofia

2004 - "Shipka 6" Gallery, Sofia

2024 - Charity Bazaar, Amsterdam, Netherlands

2023, 2001 - "Krida Art" Gallery, Sofia

2002 - Cite des Arts, Paris, France

2001 - Art Gallery, Berlin, Germany

2000 - "Olympic" Gallery, Kansas City, USA

1999 - "Cyclop" Gallery, Sofia

1998 - "Melina" Gallery, Drama, Greece

1997 - "Hilton" Hotel Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey

1996 - Beneficial exhibition, Zurich, Switzerland

1996 - "Nelly" Gallery, Chicago, USA

1995 - "Imperial Hotel" Gallery, Varna

1993 - "Notre Dame" Gallery, Paris, France

1993 - "Art Works" Gallery, Kansas City, USA

1992 - "Gagliardy" Gallery, London, England