Boyan | Untitled (Gad Zukin)

Sommer Contemporary Art is pleased to announce the opening of Boyan's solo exhibition 'Untitled, (Gad Zukin)' opening on July 12th. The show will present selected works from the past two years (2010-2012) and focus primarily on portrait paintings of Boyan's good friend Gad Zukin. Boyan's interest in Zukin originated from both his unique appearance and his stature in the art world as an artist who works mostly behind the scenes as an assistant of different leading Israeli artists. Gradually, Boyan lost interest in narrative related questions and in the search for Zukin's psychological portrait in relation to the art-world. Instead his works segued into reflexive interest in the medium of painting itself, and in portrait painting in particular. The relations between color, proportion, and between the painter and his model became the center of Boyan's search in this series.

The exhibited works in the show correspond with a world of traditional Christian imagery by means of a unique visual language that is saturated with sarcasm and black humor and characterizes Boyan's work in the past decade. The strong sentiment of alienation projected from the paintings is increased in light of Boyan's meticulous attention to minute details and to intimate symbols intentionally placed next to the grotesque figures in a troubling manner. The use of a melancholic color palate on the background of the imaginary claustrophobic spaces that surround the figures sketches a disturbing self portrait composed in through the face of the other.

Boyan Lozanov, born in Vidin, Bulgaria in 1975, lives and works in Tel Aviv. In the past few years he exhibited at Andrea Meilsin gallery, New York, Christian Erhardt, Berlin, Herzlyia Art Biennial, and at the Haifa Museum. This is his third solo exhibition at Sommer Contemporary Art.