Stefania Batoeva: Speeding to the Corner

Los Angeles

October 17 – December 5, 2015

SBEUPHORIA3, 2015. Acrylic on canvas. 170 x 200cm. 

SAD TROPICS, 2015. Acrylic on canvas. 120 x 160cm. 

SBJUNGLIST, 2015. Acrylic on canvas. 170 x 200cm. 

SBVKHEIGHTS, 2015. Acrylic on canvas. 170 x 200cm. 

SBHEIGHTS, 2015. Acrylic on canvas. 170 x 200cm. 

DARKRIVERSBOSS 2015. Acrylic on canvas. 170 x 200cm. 

SBEUPHORIA2, 2015. Acrylic on canvas. 170 x 200cm. 

SBCLUB, 2015. Acrylic on canvas. 170 x 200cm. 

STILL LIFE, 2015. Acrylic on canvas. 170 x 200cm. 

SBSPCLUB, 2015. Acrylic on canvas. 170 x 200cm. 

SBCLUB2, 2015. Acrylic on canvas. 170 x 200cm. 

LOVEDBYGIRL, 2015. Acrylic on canvas. 170 x 200cm. 

SBHEIGHTS2, 2015. Acrylic on canvas. 170 x 200cm. 

Press Release

Nicodim Gallery is pleased to present SPEEDING TO THE CORNER, Stefania Batoeva’s first solo exhibition in the US. Batoeva presents new paintings made in Los Angeles over the past month. This is the second residency for the artist this summer, after Bahia, Brazil.

 

This recent body of work takes the format of medium to large-scale paintings. Quickly executed, they register the artist’s pace of thought and specific energy of expression. Batoeva’s execution is based around a studio practice where numbers of canvases are worked and reworked simultaneously, employing the painters’ logic of decision-making happening as a conclusion of previous moves.

 

Claiming the gallery space with her language of painting, the artist further constructs a world her practice both creates and inhabits. The installational placement of the works in the exhibition and the subjective dialogues between them crystallize this world.   

 

New spirits have entered the ‘Club’, increasing the thread of darkness that runs though the amped fluorescent colors of the work. Jesús burning palm leaves on the beach is still vivid in the mind while Uber-ing in the concrete heat of LA.

 

Batoeva’s constellation of references, held together by the invisible forces of half-figuration, expands within this exhibition, as the layers of urban and rural complexity pile up. Still an underlying constant is the neat, slicked back hair of the London rude-girl and the clean yet dirty beats of the garage mixtape Jonny made while also reminiscing about LA.

Stefania Batoeva (b. 1981, Sofia, Bulgaria) is based in London. Recent solo exhibitions include: “Club Caligula” (with Ilja Karilampi, Leslie Kulesh and Isaac Lythgoe), Supplement, London (2015), “Angela Is Sliding”, Galeria Nicodim, Bucharest (2014), “Paul”, Sariev Contemporary, Plovdiv (2014),  “Still No Masterplan”, Almanac Projects, London (2013); Recent group exhibitions include: “BALCONIA” (three person show with Emanuel Röhss and Yves Scherer), SWIMMING POOL, Sofia (2015), “You will find me if you want me in the garden”, Galerie Valentin, Paris (2015). Upcoming: Two Hotel Part II, two person show with Adriano Costa following a residency in Bahia, Brazil with Emalin, London (2015).

 

 

 

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