2022 2022: Transatlantic Art Discourse Exhibition

UMass Dartmouth Painting and Drawing Faculty Exhibit in Bulgaria

This summer, UMass Dartmouth CVPA Associate Professor Elena Peteva (Art + Design) was the co-curator of the Transatlantic Art Discourse exhibition at ONE+ Gallery www.onegallery.eu in Sofia, Bulgaria, July 1 – 30, 2022. Exhibiting artists: Brett Eberhardt, Anthony Fisher, Bryan McFarlane, Elena Peteva, Suzanne Schireson and Svilen Stefanov.

“This American-Bulgarian exhibition presents six artists, each one with a distinct vision and voice, in a discourse on the experience and reflection on the moment of “now”. A rich multiplicity of visual languages – representation, abstraction, metaphor and invention – come together in the exhibition of paintings and drawings. Contemporary individual, social and global states take diverse forms through each artist’s personal lens and invite the viewer to engage in a cross-cultural conversation about “now”. This exhibition exchange project is years in the making. The first part was the exhibition of four contemporary Bulgarian artists at the Laconia Gallery in Boston, in 2017. In this second exhibition, ONE+ Gallery creates the forum for a creative discourse with four artists from the United States and the two curators.

Elena Peteva, Associate Professor of Art and Design, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Svilen Stefanov, Professor and Vice-Rector, National Academy of Art Sofia”

As one of the two curators, Prof. Peteva received a competitive grant from the United States Embassy in Bulgaria to realize the Transatlantic Art Discourse exhibition and the publication of its 56-page exhibition catalogue. A short movie of the longer artist talks can be viewed at youtu.be/tHWDR1xJ2wg. The Transatlantic Art Discourse exhibition was reflected widely in the national media, including three interviews with Prof. Peteva on Bulgarian National Radio.