BORIANA PERTCHINSKA
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Boriana Pertchinska
BEASTS
TransFORM>TRANSFER
ROTATION
FIXATION
EMOTIONAL MECHANISMS
ARCHIVE
BEASTS
Beasts. They are to be feared, they are wild, powerful, strange, scary and banished from the safe haven of civilisation. Is it because of a dark, ancient relationship that humans have always been fascinated by them? Born in Sofia in and based in Berlin since 2012, artist Boriana Pertchinska reinterprets the mythological and symbolically charged animal creatures that appear in her works: „beasts“ as embodiments of inner demons. Leaping tigers, snake-like coiled dragons, fanged predatory fish — in all these animal creatures, the inner being of a human being seems to have taken shape.
In terms of form and content, the artist works with bipolarity. Most of her works are diptychs, i.e. double images. In the inner space of each double image mirrored on the central axis, a dialogue is created between the two sides. The full meaning of each work of art is only revealed through the exciting communication between the parts. The principle of formal circularity and the unity of two limbs, explicitly visible in the painting „Drehung/ Janus“ (2022), is reminiscent of the Uruboros, an image of the eternal cycle of life and matter known since Neolithic times, often symbolised in the motif of the snake devouring its own tail. The Uroboros symbolises the idea that good and evil, negative and positive are driving forces of the same dynamic.
Absolutely exceptional is the creation of the diptychs from two layers of one painting process. The polarity that characterises all of Boriana Pertchinska's works is still preserved in the finale: on the one hand, the painting on linen in the form of a central figure formulated in the Old Master style, and on the other, the figure's likeness as a drawing on paper. Each work begins with the elaborate preparation of a chalk ground on rough linen as the basis for the painting. What later becomes the second wing of the work as paper still functions as a base in this phase, like a deeper layer of skin, so to speak, which absorbs the seeping painting medium. Like a palimpsest whose message is wiped away.
The artist, who completed her Master of Arts in mural painting at the National Academy of Fine Arts Sofia in 1999, demonstrates her masterly, realistic skills in the formulation of people, animals and floral elements using classical painting techniques with pigment and egg tempera. In the tradition of fresco and panel painting from the 14th to 17th centuries, the paintings display colourful brilliance, depth and a symbolic patina. The technical complexity of the works is an expression of the complexity of the themes treated. At the centre is the view of man as a being in a constant state of change, who must maintain a balance between physical and psychological needs, between reason and emotion, social norms, societal rules and individual desires. Against this background, it seems logical that the artist has discovered fire as a material for herself. The candle flame burns the linen, leaving behind the trace of possible destruction.
Boriana Pertchinska combines contemporary with timeless content, traditional with contemporary techniques in all her works. In this way, she endeavours to lend depth and duration to the content of this time. This creative approach of using a broad spectrum of artistic means identifies her as a contemporary of a multiple, patchwork-like world who consciously plays with the polyphony of the global treasure trove of knowledge and tradition.
Despite the realistic, model-based execution, Boriana Pertchinska does not see her depictions of people as portraits. In the process from the model to the finished result, each personality grows beyond itself and gains a supra-individual validity with the iconic face. While the faces of the people appear passive and introverted, their animalistic companions, bursting with colour, seethe with explosive power. In them, something pent-up seems to want to gain visibility and space. It seems as if only the animal creatures are able to articulate the souls of humans and give expression to what wants to be heard here. — Interestingly, only the little girl's companion in „Karussel“ (2022) is not a beast but a rocking horse. The child does not yet need a beast.
Maria Wirth, February 2025 (EN)
In terms of form and content, the artist works with bipolarity. Most of her works are diptychs, i.e. double images. In the inner space of each double image mirrored on the central axis, a dialogue is created between the two sides. The full meaning of each work of art is only revealed through the exciting communication between the parts. The principle of formal circularity and the unity of two limbs, explicitly visible in the painting „Drehung/ Janus“ (2022), is reminiscent of the Uruboros, an image of the eternal cycle of life and matter known since Neolithic times, often symbolised in the motif of the snake devouring its own tail. The Uroboros symbolises the idea that good and evil, negative and positive are driving forces of the same dynamic.
Absolutely exceptional is the creation of the diptychs from two layers of one painting process. The polarity that characterises all of Boriana Pertchinska's works is still preserved in the finale: on the one hand, the painting on linen in the form of a central figure formulated in the Old Master style, and on the other, the figure's likeness as a drawing on paper. Each work begins with the elaborate preparation of a chalk ground on rough linen as the basis for the painting. What later becomes the second wing of the work as paper still functions as a base in this phase, like a deeper layer of skin, so to speak, which absorbs the seeping painting medium. Like a palimpsest whose message is wiped away.
The artist, who completed her Master of Arts in mural painting at the National Academy of Fine Arts Sofia in 1999, demonstrates her masterly, realistic skills in the formulation of people, animals and floral elements using classical painting techniques with pigment and egg tempera. In the tradition of fresco and panel painting from the 14th to 17th centuries, the paintings display colourful brilliance, depth and a symbolic patina. The technical complexity of the works is an expression of the complexity of the themes treated. At the centre is the view of man as a being in a constant state of change, who must maintain a balance between physical and psychological needs, between reason and emotion, social norms, societal rules and individual desires. Against this background, it seems logical that the artist has discovered fire as a material for herself. The candle flame burns the linen, leaving behind the trace of possible destruction.
Boriana Pertchinska combines contemporary with timeless content, traditional with contemporary techniques in all her works. In this way, she endeavours to lend depth and duration to the content of this time. This creative approach of using a broad spectrum of artistic means identifies her as a contemporary of a multiple, patchwork-like world who consciously plays with the polyphony of the global treasure trove of knowledge and tradition.
Despite the realistic, model-based execution, Boriana Pertchinska does not see her depictions of people as portraits. In the process from the model to the finished result, each personality grows beyond itself and gains a supra-individual validity with the iconic face. While the faces of the people appear passive and introverted, their animalistic companions, bursting with colour, seethe with explosive power. In them, something pent-up seems to want to gain visibility and space. It seems as if only the animal creatures are able to articulate the souls of humans and give expression to what wants to be heard here. — Interestingly, only the little girl's companion in „Karussel“ (2022) is not a beast but a rocking horse. The child does not yet need a beast.
Maria Wirth, February 2025 (EN)
TransFORM>TRANSFER
Painting: pigments, acryl, chalk ground, jute under plexiglas
How do emotions transfer from the analogue to the digital world? Is the TRANSpotence of matter so strong? Does it manage not to lose its charge when transferred from one level to another? Is the message compressed / transformed / deformed? Boriana Pertchinska visualises this transfer process in her diptychs - the integrity of psyche and function / mechanism and at the same time their conflict. The audience can experience the transfer; her diptychs pose the big question of what remains.
In search of intersections between timeless and contemporary themes, Boriana Pertchinska uses classical painting techniques as a starting point for her experiments. She strives to give depth and duration to postmodern reality. She applies layers of paint to jute using chalk, pigments, tempera and acrylic, and finds the effect of "symbolic patina": traces of past forms of expression preserved in the contemporary object.
The TRANSFER cycle is an extension of her TRANSform cycle, in which she has been working since 2016.
How do emotions transfer from the analogue to the digital world? Is the TRANSpotence of matter so strong? Does it manage not to lose its charge when transferred from one level to another? Is the message compressed / transformed / deformed? Boriana Pertchinska visualises this transfer process in her diptychs - the integrity of psyche and function / mechanism and at the same time their conflict. The audience can experience the transfer; her diptychs pose the big question of what remains.
In search of intersections between timeless and contemporary themes, Boriana Pertchinska uses classical painting techniques as a starting point for her experiments. She strives to give depth and duration to postmodern reality. She applies layers of paint to jute using chalk, pigments, tempera and acrylic, and finds the effect of "symbolic patina": traces of past forms of expression preserved in the contemporary object.
The TRANSFER cycle is an extension of her TRANSform cycle, in which she has been working since 2016.
ROTATION
Painting: pigments, acryl, chalk ground, jute under plexiglas
The Primum Mobile/The First Mover, Janus - the beginning and the end, the transformed energy from one level to another, from the analogue to the digital world, is the idea in the cycle "Rotation - Transfer". The transferred energy, the matter and the spirit, transformed into another form, into another reality.
Boriana Pertchinska shows the dualistic nature of man in confrontation with the obsessive, over-technological and over-informatized world.
The Primum Mobile/The First Mover, Janus - the beginning and the end, the transformed energy from one level to another, from the analogue to the digital world, is the idea in the cycle "Rotation - Transfer". The transferred energy, the matter and the spirit, transformed into another form, into another reality.
Boriana Pertchinska shows the dualistic nature of man in confrontation with the obsessive, over-technological and over-informatized world.
JANUS-the other face
JANUS-the other face
JANUS-the other face
Carousel
Carousel
Carousel
Carousel
Carousel
Carousel
The Cyclist
The Cyclist
The Cyclist
FIXATION
Painting: pigments, acryl, chalk ground / wood
The art of observation....
The art of observation....
Fixation I
Fixation I
Fixation II
Fixation II
EMOTIONAL MECHANISMS 2013-2015
Diptychs from the series
rithe piece: painting- pigments, acryl, chalk ground/ wood
lieft piece: photo
The mechanisms that move our emotions - whether our emotions are authentic or manipulated reactions by someone who pushes our "buttons" - a signal that provokes our feelings (Pavlov's dog syndrome), an emotional stimulus without a specific situation, context or external provocation, will not develop. The emotional constellations in which we voluntarily find ourselves automatically transform us from the position of the manipulator in the same moment to the position of the manipulated and vice versa.... We get caught and are caught. ..we are part of the great mecha-feeling machine that we move and that moves us... Where are our authentic feelings then?........... Whether they are a psychological illusion?..... .... .. .
rithe piece: painting- pigments, acryl, chalk ground/ wood
lieft piece: photo
The mechanisms that move our emotions - whether our emotions are authentic or manipulated reactions by someone who pushes our "buttons" - a signal that provokes our feelings (Pavlov's dog syndrome), an emotional stimulus without a specific situation, context or external provocation, will not develop. The emotional constellations in which we voluntarily find ourselves automatically transform us from the position of the manipulator in the same moment to the position of the manipulated and vice versa.... We get caught and are caught. ..we are part of the great mecha-feeling machine that we move and that moves us... Where are our authentic feelings then?........... Whether they are a psychological illusion?..... .... .. .
I'm gone, Triptych, 2015
Yo-yo time, 2015
Relationship-Gravity, 2015
Get away from me
BORIANA PERTCHINSKA
Rennbahnstr.132
13086 Berlin
Deutschland
+49 163 67 06 999
Rennbahnstr.132
13086 Berlin
Deutschland
+49 163 67 06 999
Copyright © 2025 - Boriana Pertchinska
