This is Ziyatin Nuriev’s first retrospective exhibition. Over 35 years of creative work are presented, including both sculptures from his years as a student and some of his latest works.

Ziyatin Nuriev’s depth and innovativeness place him among the most talented Bulgarian sculptors. Already with his first participations in national exhibitions, his works were noticed and bought, almost with no exceptions, by the National Art Gallery, the Sofia City Gallery as well as leading galleries around the country. Initially he worked in basalt, one of the hardest materials, with a predilection for figure and portrait. After 1988, he synthesised the human figure achieving an almost abstract form in various materials – marble, bronze, wood, ceramics.

Ziyatin Nuriev’s oeuvre combines antiquity and modernity. Lessons from the Egyptian plastic thinking are enlivened by the author’s personal language. Conciseness, deep thought and lurking might are his fundamental features.

Ziyatin works and lives in Istanbul but his connection with Bulgaria has never been severed, the latest proof of which are his exhibitions in Varna (2014) and Plovdiv (2015).

Ziyatin Nuriev was born in the village of Most, district of Kurdjali. He graduated in sculpture from the National Academy of Arts in Sofia in 1982. Up until 1990, he worked in Bulgaria and then moved to Istanbul where he has been teaching sculpture at the Fine Arts Faculty of the Marmara University.

Major participations and exhibitions:

International Sculpture Symposium in Orońsko, Poland (1986); Granite Sculpture Symposium – island of Avșa, Turkey (1993); First Stone Sculpture Symposium – Yalova, Turkey (1995); International Sculpture Biennial – Toyamura, Japan (1997); Project Conversation with the Soul, Raku Gallery, Kyoto (2003); International Sculpture Symposium – Fuerteventura, the Canary Islands (2004, 2005); solo exhibition at the Simoncini Gallery – Luxemburg (2005); International Marble Sculpture Symposium – Saraylar, the island of Marmara, Turkey (2005); solo exhibition at the Akmerkez Gallery, Istanbul (2006), solo exhibition at the Ișik Gallery, Turkey (2014), solo exhibition at the Resonance Gallery, Plovdiv (2015).