Hristo Hristov - exhibition of painting and sculpture

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, inhabit the two exhibition spaces of Art Gallery Le Papillon from 21 May to 17 June 2026. The exposition brings together his latest reflections and emotional interpretations in works inspired by the silence of dawn and dusk. "Between Day and Night", Hristo's tireless spirit is harmonised, along with his sometimes explosive, sometimes river-calm explorations of the forms of colour, their blending into complex tones, contrasts and, lately, 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 the abstract presence of the figure and its silhouette in space, as if in diverging coordinate systems. In fact, the more abstract and generalised 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 the day and colours range from orange-pink to red, or in other moments of mental clarity, his works always carry his characteristic signature. The visual and emotional accumulations in the artist's soul unite history, reliefs from antiquity, but also from purely Christian traditions. We recognise 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 giving the sense of tree bark. Hristo Hristov creates iconic images and codes through which we discern elements of this heritage and his interpretation of the themes that move him, as well as in the choice of figurative-plastic language in his sculptural or painted works. Hristo Hristov is not only an established name in contemporary Bulgarian art, but is also recognised as one of the best Bulgarian sculptors with an authentic, recognisable style. In his painterly explorations in recent years, boldness, courage and enigma stand out, with colourful accents. The paintings express wonderful abstract painting, unfolding the layers of colour 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, interwoven with the lines of silhouettes, images, signs, codes and reliefs, affirms the independence, freedom and authenticity of his painting, but also shows the interconnection and references to his typical forms and figures of his sculptures. Hristov conveys a cutting through of space by the heavy metal, and 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 semantic 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 palette with bright accents, with figurative references to his form and 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 his successful presentations in Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, France and Poland, not only in exhibitions but also through the presence of his works in numerous foreign collections, and proves that he is not confined to the local but meets the aesthetic understanding and love of people of different nationalities and cultures.