Hristo Hristov - painting and sculpture exhibition

About this event

Forms and reliefs in colour and in bronze, created "Between Day and Night" by the talented and beloved Varna sculptor and artist Hristo Hristov, populate the two exhibition spaces of Le Papillon Art Gallery from 21 May to 17 June 2026. The exposition brings together his latest reflections and emotional interpretations in works inspired by the silence of morning and dusk. "Between Day and Night", Hristo's tireless spirit harmonizes with his explorations of the forms of colour - sometimes explosive, sometimes calm as a river - their blending into complex tones, contrasts and, of late, a layering from dark to light. We can observe that while in sculpture Hristov seeks the clean lightness of the silhouette, in painting he moves along the line of an abstract presence of the figure and its silhouette in space, as if in diverging coordinate systems. In fact, the more abstract and generalized his painting becomes, the more one senses the rhythm and musical harmonies that abstractionism usually evokes in the mind. Whether Hristo creates in the moments of the golden hour "Between Day and Night", when the light dims the brilliance of day and the colours shift to orange-pink and red, or in other moments of mental clarity, his works always bear his characteristic signature. The visual and emotional accumulations in the artist's soul unite history, reliefs from antiquity, but also purely Christian traditions. We recognize the symbolism of the curve of the moon in all his silhouettes, the outstretched arms reminiscent of a cross and the directions of energies, the deep relief of figures or that which gives the sensation of tree bark. Hristo Hristov creates emblematic images and codes through which we distinguish elements of this heritage and his interpretation of the themes that move him, as well as in his choice of the figurative-plastic language in his sculptural or painterly works. Hristo Hristov is not only an established name in contemporary Bulgarian art, but is also recognized as one of the best Bulgarian sculptors with an authentic, recognizable style. In his painterly explorations of recent years, boldness, courage and enigmatic quality with colourful accents stand out. The paintings express wonderful abstract painting, unfolding the colourful layerings in the soul of an artist captivated by form and its line. The author's typical style of expressing himself on the canvas with firmness, intertwined with the lines of silhouettes, images, signs, codes and reliefs, affirms the independence, freedom and authenticity of his painting, but also reveals the interconnection and references to the forms and figures typical of his sculptures. Hristov suggests the cutting of space by heavy metal, while his experienced, skilful hands seem to tame the material and create an impressive gallery of expressive images with a monumental resonance and modern plastic solutions. In his paintings too, Hristo Hristov takes an uncompromising approach; his painting is dense, seen in its conceptual monolithic quality, giving sensory expression to the ideas he has, sought and conceived in colours and forms before being created three-dimensionally as sculptures, and complementing them in a magnificent way. His canvases have an abstract resonance in a soothing colour scheme with bright accents, with figurative references to form and to his sculpture, but each one awakens associative suggestions and questions in the viewer and creates a sense of a story that everyone completes for themselves. Over the years his work has captivated foreign audiences too in successful presentations in Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, France and Poland, not only in exhibitions but also through the presence of his works in a number of foreign collections, proving that he is not confined to the local but meets the aesthetic understanding and love of people of different nationalities and cultures.