BALKAN STORIES

A series of twelve canvases of 210 x 120 cm each, arranged in two triptychs, two diptychs, and two solo paintings. Oil on canvas. 2025.

Part of Balkan Stories, solo exhibition at Doza Gallery, curated by Georgi P. Pavlov.

This cycle of six large-scale paintings started with the artist’s examination of the ways his Eastern European background and different Western influences shaped his identity, taste, and interests, focusing on the themes of queer loneliness and desire. Based on different frames from films by James Ivory – a quietly subversive director and screenwriter who has influenced the author – the canvases interweave image with text, seeking a home in a particular aesthetic and posing the question of which forms of cultural appropriation are acceptable and which are not.