Luchezar Boyadijev

Luchezar Boyadjiev was born in 1957 in Sofia, where he still lives and works. A graduate from the National Art Academy in Sofia, he is one of Bulgaria’s most famous contemporary artists.

His work focuses on the personal interpretation of social processes, the interaction between the private and public spheres, about urban visuality as well as the modern dichotomy of simultaneous utopia and dystopia. His media is installation, photography, drawing, objects, text, video, and performance lectures, while his main themes are the private interpretations of public space and visuality of global cities, the public/private dichotomy in the artist’s inner world, and fostering involvement with audiences by deconstructing the local/global, active participant /passive viewer, and artist/audience oppositions.

Through his installations, photographs, drawings, objects and videos, he reflects on social processes and changes. In the 1990s, he turned to religious themes and symbols and sometimes created utopias based on different belief systems. Boyadjiev’s works always have a message about the world, life and art, which he always strives to present to his audience in an accessible manner. He is the recipient of many awards and fellowships, including the Visual Arts Fellowship in Italy in 2017 and the Grand Prix, “Onufri’98 – Permanent Instability” in 1998. He has attended artist-in-residence programmes in Sofia (2018), Seoul (2009), Sharjah, UAE (2007), and Worpswede, Germany (2007).