Over three seas… into the fifth one: exhibition by Valio Tchenkov

The artist Valio Tchenkov left Bulgaria in 1990. There were many hardships and obstacles, many vacillations and collisions. In the absence of logic, on the verge of absurdity he jumped over three seas… and into the fifth one. His big exhibition at Credo Bonum brings together works from the last three years. Works that the artist would rather not define in words. They are not paintings, or sculptures, or objects; they might be all these things at the same time, because they are trajectories that started at different points. A chance encounter with an image or an object, or a story, starts the process of adding and removing, of freeform modeling. Fantastic figures appear on various surfaces, stories seem to come out of childhood nightmares. These images are appealing but also scary and shocking as they play an obscure game with the fantasy of the spectator. They remind us of the language of surrealism, but also that of comic strips… and there’s something of the old masters, too, only at the centre of the canvas there might be a hole, or some glued-on patch of cardboard.

For his works, the artist says: “I keep some sort of diary for events that are not actual events; I get influenced by secondary motives and start painting as if I know which way I’m going… If I’m lucky, the picture will have some individuality, the figures will click together, they will diffuse into what already exists. Some things seem to mutate. The whole goes out of control. It is as if I’ve hit the highway: you speed up, there are no rules, a sharp turn, then straight ahead. You step on the gas and… into the pit.”

Valio Tchenkov’s exhibition at Credo Bonum Gallery is organized with the support of Sariev Contemporary Gallery, Plovdiv.

Valio Tchenkov was born 1966 in Svishtov, Bulgaria. He lives and works in Munich, Germany and Oresh, Bulgaria. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia and the Akademie der Bildenden Kuenste, Munich. Tchenkov has participated in various exhibitions such as The day After Yesterday (with Vincent Mitzev), Kunstpavillion Munich, Germany (2017);König des täglichen Nichts, Old Prison, Freising, Germany, Minga – Moon, Gallery Florian Sundheimer, Munich, Germany (2016); V&V TV, 56 Venice Biennale (with Vincent Mitzev), Gallery Royal, Munich, Germany (2015); Kunschelecke, raue Decke, Projectroom Nagel-Draxler, Cologne, Germany (2014); “…in a trice and for a while…”, and “A Sunny Day: Sandpaper on One’s Back” at Sariev Contemporary, “Poesie Summer Watou”, Belgium, curated by Jan Hoet; ”Fuori Uso”, Pescara, Italy, curated by Agnes Kohlmeyer; “Sweet Case Eluminated”, MAC/VAL Museum Paris, curated by Katia Angelova (a.o.); and ”Conviction”, Dafen Art Museum, China, curated by Wenie Wong (a.o.). In Bulgaria, he has been nominated for the M-tel Unlimited Contemporary Bulgarian Art Award (2011) and participated in the exhibition “Why Duchamp? From Object to Museum and Back (125 years)”, curated by Maria Vassileva (SAMCA, 2012). Valio Tchenkov is represented by Sariev Contemporary, Plovdiv.