Kiril Katsarov

Kiril Katsarov

Location: Bulgaria

Kiril Katsarov is a phenomenon in the contemporary artistic arena in Bulgaria. He defined himself as a true researcher of the modern times. He was born in Sofia, capital city of Bulgaria in1977. Kiril interest’s in art began at his early age. His non standard perception of the world can be traced back to his early paintings and graphics. His passion to art leads him to the world of advertising. His creative visionary was a pin point of many successful branding campaigns. Many international advertisers trust Kiril for the execution of their marketing campaigns –examples. Currently he is studying for a master degree in the National Academy of Arts specializing Fine arts. Kiril has realized more than 20 exhibitions and art projects in Sofia and lots of Bulgarian cities as well as Germany and Unated Kingdom. His conceptual projects turn into symbol of the modern times and are a real metaphor of today contemporary world.Some of his most significant projects are “A place for your Ad”, “Work International” and “Sport Unlimited”. His art works are a colorful mix of fantastic themes, abstract geometry with surrealistic and pop art elements. Kiril’s works are part of many private collections in USA, UK, Bulgaria and France. Between his clients are leading Bulgarian bankers and economists, famous actors and international companies like Fox International Channels. His favorite technics are oil, acrylic and collage as well as graphic technics. More information you can find on: www.katsart.net


Portfolio:

Digital Still lives

Our society is getting out of direct communication (a face-to-face one). Everything now is happening through technology devices. People in the bus, on the street, in the elevator or in night clubs – everywhere they are looking at their smartphones, tablets or laptops in order to stay connected. But this connection isn’t real. It’s a surrogate reality. The contact between people is changed to something different. They don’t touch themselves but they touch the touch-screens. The communication is transformed.
And as “easier” become to find new friends, new love partners or new job on the web, as harder is to live in the real life. All turns to virtual. This “transformation” of values is in the center of my series of works named: “Digital still lives”.
The concept is to show exactly this phenomena – the influence of the digital époque over our reality. The objects in the paintings are still here, but they are transformed already as pictures behind the digital displays and in fact… they aren’t here. We see an apple but this isn’t an apple, it’s a virtual reflection of an apple. The still lives are transformed into something else. They are visible but their presence is an illusion. You can’t touch or eat them, you can only find their existence as convincing even you don’t know where and when this existence is. And if the still life represents a “dead nature”, here this nature is double dead, exactly for the same reason. The still lives are reflection of the reflection.

Digital Still life “Digital Still life”

oil on canvas, 100 x 130 cm, 2016

Mobile Still life “Mobile Still life”

Oil on canvas, 100 x 130 cm, 2016

A space still life “A space still life”

Acrylic on canvas, 50 x 70 cm, 2009

Friday night “Friday night”

Oil on canvas, 100 x 80, 2016

Sunset still life “Sunset still life”

Oil on canvas, 100 x 80, 2016

The blue room “The blue room”

Oil on canvas, 100 x 80, 2016

Work International

An art project dedicated to the working culture that is based on a rare collection of old fashioned posters about the safety working rules from the 60-ties. This exhibition was a conceptual crash between our contemporary world and the times of the fake working culture from Bulgarian communist past. The works are represented by dozens of collages and posters 40 x 50 cm, as well as an unique big canvas with the shape of a star.

In its Work INTERNATIONAL project Kiril Katsarov seeks to express himself in a post-totalitarian poster, presenting a series of collages based on retro socialistic style and the culture of the labor posters. The artist shows this time in a different perspective, with authentic techniques and media used by those who are used into the communist past of Bulgaria. That’s how this art project focuses on the interaction between modern times and the stereotypes of socialism, using unusual visual style and international vocabulary.

Work INTERNATIONAL it’s also a kind of clash of the present with the past in searching of their point of intersection, from which will be born the future. The author has illustrated quite literally this intercultural clash with color, style and attitude. Gray of socialism era are meeting the colors of present and boring didactic slogans encounters the unbridled new mythology of modern slogans.

The stories of the collages are a mix of different cultural layers and archetypes: work ethic and morals, ecology and disaster, misunderstood values, erotic, fairy tale characters, modern myths, etc. Each poster contains the original slogan in Bulgarian language and a contemporary motto in another language: English, German, French, Spanish.

Cherchez la femme “Cherchez la femme”

Collage on paper, 50 x 40 cm, 2012

Oh, you are so noisy, boy! “Oh, you are so noisy, boy!”

Collage on paper, 50 x 40 cm, 2012

Happy ending “Happy ending”

Collage on paper, 50 x 40 cm, 2012

Mr Proper “Mr Proper”

Collage on paper, 50 x 40 cm, 2012

Come on baby light my fire “Come on baby light my fire”

Collage on paper, 50 x 40 cm, 2012

Make love not war “Make love not war”

Collage on paper, 50 x 40 cm, 2012

La dolce vita “La dolce vita”

Collage on paper, 50 x 40 cm, 2012

Sempre fidelis “Sempre fidelis”

Collage on paper, 50 x 40 cm, 2012

Be creative “Be creative”

Collage on paper, 50 x 40 cm, 2012

May the force be with you “May the force be with you”

Collage on paper, 50 x 40 cm, 2012

Fiat lux! “Fiat lux!”

Collage on paper, 50 x 40 cm, 2012

The leader “The leader”

Collage on paper, 50 x 40 cm, 2012

X-Ray journey

This is my newest art project focused on traveling and suitcases. Here I wanted to show the secret life of our luggage trough an X-ray vision. The canvases are made to be in the similar shapes as the real objects they represent, so the painting of a suitcase has its own handles and wheels. This is a metaphor of our dreams and fears we keep deeply in our souls.

Digital generation “Digital generation”

Oil on canvas, 40 x 60, 2016

Dog in a bag “Dog in a bag”

Oil on canvas, 40 x 60 cm, 2016

Kiss in a suitcase “Kiss in a suitcase”

Oil on canvas integrated in a real suitcase,collage, 40 x 50 x 3, 2016

This is not my luggage “This is not my luggage”

Acrylic on 3D canvas, 50 x 50 cm, collage, mixed media: leather, CD Rom, paper, 2010

One way ticket “One way ticket”

Oil on canvas, 25 x 70, 2016

Miss secret agent suitcase “Miss secret agent suitcase”

Oil on canvas integrated in a real suitcase, collage, mixed media, 30 x 40 x 5 cm, 2017

Sport Unlimited

The human body is the ultimate instrument of reality. Its perfect shape is the Nirvana we are dreaming for.

SPORT UNLIMITED is interested in the sport as a manifestation of human nature and life and its extreme limits. It explores refraction prisms of reality and common moments of breakthrough, leading right to the record.

Kiril wants to express the emotion of the fusion of different worlds, trying to create a new universe. The status quo is overcomed and the transcend past structure is being broken. And all this creates an adventure syndrome of the expanding universe.

The focus of the paintings is the impulse to a new record and that special moment when the athlete almost reaches another dimension which is kind of “no man’s land.” The will to win is so strong that it literally transforms the reality around him and athletes fall into a changed life, full of amazing shapes and colors or just schematic images – symbols of modern civilization. The spectators can almost feel the surreal atmosphere and weightlessness of other existing rules.

The exhibition presents a dozen paintings each of which is thematically linked to specific sports: swimming, football, rings, sumo, taekwondo, gymnastics, tennis, athletics, and ice skating.

The break point “The break point”

Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 130 cm, 2013

Foucault pendulum “Foucault pendulum”

Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 130 cm, 2013

No mans land “No mans land”

Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 130 cm, 2013

The butterfly's effect “The butterfly's effect”

Acrylic on canvas, 85 x 130 cm, 2010

Start “Start”

Acrylic on canvas, 50 x 70 cm, 2010

Equilibrium “Equilibrium”

Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 70 cm, 2013

Evolution “Evolution”

Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 130 cm, 2013

Speed “Speed”

Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 70 cm, 2013

Snow traffic lights “Snow traffic lights”

Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 70 cm, 2013

Last tango in Paris “Last tango in Paris”

Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100 cm, 2011

Spirit of a victory “Spirit of a victory”

Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100 cm, 2011

Deadline targets “Deadline targets”

Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 50 cm, 2005

A Place for your AD

A PLACE FOR YOUR AD
is an unique art project with its way of advertisement integration – each painting has a real Ad place which can be used for a commercial.

The main idea of this art project was to be a reflection of our super commercial society as an attempt to show the absurd of the consummation principle. Commercials are everywhere! It’s time to realize where the limits of the commercial way of living could be reached, and this will happen only if the borders are crossed! Kiril’s art project is exactly that kind of borders crossing! One bold step over this sacral place there – on the painting where the artist shows his soul. And then comes the eternal question: Does Art have limits and when it stops being it-self?

A Place for your AD is an artistic experiment of twenty paintings, which are in the same time art works and alternative AD objects. For the first time after Pop Art the advertisement penetrates in the fine art, without losing its real nature – to sell. What is more, the paintings reflect it 100 %. Fine Arts had never treated as a concrete AD place which could be used by clients for a campaign during an exhibition. Well, this happened! For the author this project is a kind of natural symbiosis between both main directions – the world of advertising and the world of fine arts. For everyone else this is a philosophic question about the quintessence of life, existence and the universe… Next challenge to the Modern Art is made.

With the series of exhibitions under the name “Place for your Ad ” the author presented himself as an innovative and avant-garde artist who boldly experiments with the boundaries of modern art.

A Place for your AD “A Place for your AD”

Acrylic on canvas, 120 x 150 cm, 2009

On the road “On the road”

Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 70 cm, 2010

Little prince “Little prince”

Acrylic on canvas, 70 x 70 cm, 2011

The floating town “The floating town”

Acrylic on canvas, 55 x 46 cm, 2010

Dancing bottles “Dancing bottles”

Acrylic on canvas, 70 x 70 cm, 2009

IQ profile “IQ profile”

Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 70 cm, 2010

Over the city “Over the city”

Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 150 cm, 2010

No signal “No signal”

Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 80 cm, 2010

A rain prayer “A rain prayer”

Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 75 cm, 2010

The bird of freedom “The bird of freedom ”

Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 70 cm, 2010