The exhibition of Kiril Prashkov “Poetry All Around” is part of the long-term policy of the Sofia City Art Gallery to present one-artist shows of the most active contemporary art practitioners each year. These are artists whose work is influencing the development of the Bulgarian art scene in general. The invitation to showcase the works of Kiril Prashkov was extended because of the ability of this artist to propose theoretical problems in the form of artistic works where the relations between the means of expression and the material, the imagery, the quotation references and the metaphors are always legitimated by the initial idea. Many of his works are motivated by the drive to illuminate notions and concepts such as modernity, contemporaneity and classics that are the target for commentaries and debate within the practice of contemporary art.

Since the end of the 1980ies the artist has been experimenting with comparisons between the value of the “idea” and the “making” of an artwork. His artistic analysis is occasionally related to Western modernism(s) or the transformations of art at the end of the 20th century in Bulgaria; they are just as often related to the realm of politics, history and theory of art.

The exhibition includes works from various periods such as “Wire” (1989), “Hommage a Pouchkine” (1999) and “Natural Modernism” (2004). However, while being a survey of the artist’s career it is not a retrospective as such. The exhibition includes a number of new works that were created especially for this occasion and will be shown in public for the first time ever.

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Kiril Prashkov (b. 1956) graduated the National Art Academy, Sofia, the Department for Graphic Design and Illustration. Between 1984 and 1989 he works for the Kultura Weekly. In 1991-1992 he is the Chairman of the Club of the (eternally) Young Artist. He has realized many projects in the field of the printed media. He is a founding Member of the Institute of Contemporary Art-Sofia. Some of his one-artist exhibitions are “Watch Your Step” (SIBank Gallery, Sofia, 2007), “Responsible Painting” (The French Cultural Institute, Sofia, 2006), “Quotations” (Moscow Museum for Contemporary Art, Moscow, 2005), “Drawing as a Craft” (ATA Center / Institute of Contemporary Art, Sofia, 2003); as well as shows in the Spaces Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio, USA; the “The Oh God, No/O Yeah” Book and other Books and Vegetables” (Gallery of KulturKontakt, Vienna, 1995); the “Gruezi”, in Scuol-Nairs, Switzerland (1993).