The Other Eye is a SCAG project presenting periodically exhibitions designed and curated by non-art historian outside curators who select works from the gallery’s permanent collection to create thought-provoking art projects of their own. For its new exhibition under the project, the gallery has invited as curator Georgi Voynov, an economist and longtime contemporary art collector.

Georgi Voynov focuses on the charitable donation of artworks, as well as on the reality and mysticism in the works of specific artists belonging to the genres of graphic arts and sculpture.

The exhibition presents four notable Bulgarian graphic artists and their view of the world. The artworks featured in the exhibition are characterized by thematic and genre (printmaking and sculpture) diversity, yet they have one thing in common, namely all of them have become part of the permanent collection of the Sofia City Art Gallery through charitable donations. The exhibition features 82 graphic artworks and 15 small-scale sculptures created by artists belonging to different generations, with differing aesthetic views, philosophies of life and means of expression.

The exhibition features artworks handpicked by the artists who created them to be added to the SCAG graphic arts and sculpture collections as charitable donations, as well as artworks presented to the gallery by the heirs of renowned Bulgarian artists.

Veselin Staykov and Preslav Karshovski seek their themes in the real visible world. With Rumen Skorchev and Nikolay Maystorov eternal parables and sentimental memories are enveloped in mysticism and related to imaginary creatures and situations. The rough mark left by life reflected in Margarita Radeva’s ceramic portraits contrasts with the soft plastic shapes of Margarit Tsanev’s miniature sculptures thus blending these artworks with the graphic artworks presented in the exhibition.

Looking back at the collections donated to the SCAG, this exhibition shows appreciation and respect for donors for their noble gesture which is commensurate with the artistic merit of the donated artworks.

Charitable donation of artworks is a matter of personal choice, yet it has a great social impact and significance.