The exhibition of Ventzislav Piriankov at the Bok-MCC Gallery is being presented as part of the City Days and the South Slavic Culture Festival. The Bulgarian artist, who studied in Poland and now lives in Poznań, apologized at Friday’s opening that he would not say much about his works. “I get stage fright in front of a microphone, and I prefer painting pictures to describing them,” said Ventzislav Piriankov.
He paints his most expressive works with oil paint, applying it thickly to canvas or board. He draws on the symbolism of Byzantine icons. In the convention of a religious painting, he depicts married couples or intertwined lovers’ bodies, as in the painting “Idealization and Light.” His two-sexed angels ascending to heaven have a double face: that of a woman and a man. And the paintings depicting Mary with the Child express tenderness through their very form, the rounded shapes of the figures, and the way the barely sketched silhouettes nestle against one another.
Icons—paintings depicting saints, scenes from the Bible and God Himself—were considered emanations of God, and it was believed that He guided the hand of the chosen painter while he worked. Before beginning to paint, the author, a monk, entered a religious trance. He fasted and prayed. Drawing on the symbolism of the icon and placing within its sacredness a human couple embracing, or even engaged in a sexual act, makes it possible to sacralize passion itself and the body associated with it. Piriankov’s works have many meanings. In an exceptionally subtle way, the artist has combined two worlds that are not easily reconciled in our culture. He found space for sexuality and holiness.
The exhibition will be on view for a month at the “Długa” Gallery of MCC-BOK (Forum Cinema).
(information by Grażyna Hanaf)