"Escaping Definitions" - by Natalia Megas, Elan Magazine read more...
Arts Council of Fairfax County Announces
11 Strauss Fellowship Recipients read more...
The Arts Council of Fairfax County is pleased to announce its annual juried exhibition: Arts Council @ GRACE read more...
Team Work
Bulgarian Husband and Wife Paint Energetic Abstract Symbolism read more ...
George Kotchev works in oil and tempera on canvas. He depicts individuals alone and in relationships with expressionistic and surrealist styles. He was born in Kardjali, Bulgaria and now lives in the Washington, DC area. read more...
Nadia Kotcheva & George Kotchev Painting Exhibition. see more ...
Excellence in their trade won the couple a second invitation to showcase their art at the neighborhood gallery, which first displayed the pair ís work three years ago. Although the couple has traveled worldwide presenting their artwork, the Washington area struck them during their first visit, Davis said, and they mentioned that they would enjoy moving here. After waiting a year to obtain green cards, the couple surprised Davis by actually moving to the United States just months before the exhibit, leaving behind their day jobs as a university art lecturer and museum curator (Nadia) and a training information specialist for the United Nations Development Programme (George).
With their surreal qualities and abstract form, the paintings are difficult to interpret, and the artists offer viewers few clues. Perhaps for the sake of mystique or because of the language barrier, George ís only explanation was: I feel that I must draw. I must make paintings, he said. Let other people explain it and summarize it.
The artists clearly draw on ideas from their personal experiences and dreams (several of George ís nine paintings are titled Dream I, Dream II, for instance.), drawing praise for their sheer painting ability. When I do figures, theyíre real, said local landscape artist Bill Dorsey. So I really appreciate it when someone can get the features and expression with so few details, he said of George is abstract faces.
Although the exhibit comes at a hectic point in the artists lives, the 17 oil paintings are anything but chaoticóand when they are, it ís done with a refined purpose. This has very good composition, Scotti said, nodding at George ís painting titled Fragments. It is very balanced with [the] crazy, he added, gesturing at the dominating pinks and blues encasing an upside-down human head. But here [on the left side], it is very calm with the simple soft pink design.
Summer tale