Opening Reception: Friday, May 30, 6–8 pm
Derek Eller Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of recent mixed-media paintings by Iva Gueorguieva entitled Gallop, to retrieve the sunlight!. This will be her first exhibition with the gallery.
Born in Bulgaria in 1974, Gueorguieva arrived in the United States when she was sixteen. Informed by the immigrant experience, Gueorguieva is an artist who, through her practice, also acts as a kind of interlocutor and cartographer. Densely layered and tactile, her works teeter between familiar and abstract. Often vast in scale, the paintings at once evoke topographical mapping, excavation, organic architecture, tracking animal prints, recording the weather, and storytelling via a language reminiscent of petroglyphs. Interspersed throughout are what the artist terms “moments of intimacy” or “little gifts of legibility for the viewer”, although admittedly, the interpretation of these passages is highly subjective. In one such painting (Field 10), a crouching winged figure is positioned on the left side of the composition. Could this be the iconographic Archangel Gabriel or a flying creature from some ancient mythology? Either reading underscores the devotional tenor of the work.
Guided by constant drawing in the studio, Gueorguieva’s painting process can take months, as she begins with mark-making and staining and builds her surfaces. Gauze is dipped in pigment, wadded up, and dragged across the ground of the canvas, creating tracks or a “spine”. Cord is quilted and woven throughout, generating a line disrupted by the occasional knot. Gauze re- appears in layers, gently veiling forms. Colors are added and wiped or smeared. Marks are scratched and rubbed, holes are opened and mended. Inspired by Miro and Fontana, Gueorguieva strives “to be an artist of violence and resistance, a painter, a creator of forms who uses everything at her disposal to not acquiesce”. This approach infuses the paintings with tension, physicality, and performative rhythm.
Iva Gueorguieva (b.1974, Sofia, Bulgaria, lives and works in Los Angeles, CA) received her B.A. from the Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA. She has had recent solo exhibitions at Night Gallery, Los Angeles, Bradwolff & Partners, Amsterdam, and Gavlak Gallery, Palm Beach, FL. Her work is included in public collections such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA, among others.