Ivan Kanchev
Biography
I work impulsively... I see things ready in my mind - with details and colors
Ivan Kanchev was born on September 17, 1973, in Ruse. In 2000 he graduated in Ceramics at the National Academy of Arts in Sofia, and in 2006 in Psychology at the University of Ruse "Angel Kanchev". He defended his doctoral dissertation in art history and fine arts at the Department of Sculpture. Between 2010 and 2011, he was a part-time lecturer in sculpture at the Department of Ceramics at the National Academy of Arts. Ivan has had dozens of solo exhibitions of his work and participated in many group exhibitions in Bulgaria and in prestigious forums in Italy, Spain, Japan, Poland, Denmark, France, Belgium, Slovenia, Switzerland, China, Austria, Germany, Portugal, Croatia, Canada, the USA, and others. He has won over 30 national and international awards (Prize in the international competition for the Art of Unity Creative Award, New York (2021); "GOLD LIST Special Edition - The best contemporary artists of today" in Art Market Magazine. Global Media Company (2021, 2022); Award, Light Space & Time Art Gallery, Palm Springs, CA, USA (2021); International Donatello Prize (Florence, Italy) of the EFETO ARTE Foundation (2023). His works are in prestigious galleries and museums around the world. In addition, he is the author of curatorial projects and several books in the field of sculpture and ceramics.
He currently teaches at the Department of Sculpture at the National Academy of Arts in Sofia.
What’s your background?
I was born in Ruse - by the Danube river. I stick to my Bulgarian roots, but I have a universal understanding of man and the world. I see the human race in a biblical meaning - as a big family. I do not divide people according to their origin and faith, skin color or gender. There is a place for everyone under the sun, everyone has the freedom to express their skills and pretensions.
As an intuitive artist, I accept that instinct trumps knowledge. That's why I place great value on intuition as a pure foundation for creativity. I don't like to explain my work. I work on impulse. I see the works ready in my mind - with details and colors.
The basis of creativity is freedom, variety and individuality. The work has to be original, it has to build artistry, no matter what form it takes. Art's ability to create autonomous parallel worlds is unique. This is why I have a liberal attitude towards the art world and the artist within it.
I hold to the profound plan of the work, so I put forward actual and universal questions of a social and philosophical nature. I look for new synthetic forms with original technique of expression. Seeking continuity with the multi-layered millennial culture of the Bulgarian lands, I strive for universality. My recent works can be perceived as sculpture, objects, installations, pottery, panels, mosaics, paintings - this is formal. They contain graphic moments, reliefs, drawings and photographs. I use various types of clay, glaze, soot, wood, paper, metal, resin, and polyurethane to make the works. I take the radiation of the work as the most important. I insist on the natural suggestiveness of ceramics.
In search of the innovation, I continue to develop the ancient techniques of black pottery and black sculpture (coming from prehistory and Thracian art in Bulgarian lands) as painting, using the technique of mosaic and the structure of the wall panel. It is amazing how the fire paints.
With an untraditional attitude towards ceramics, my initial classes were dedicated to the blind. In Bulgaria I am a pioneer in researching, making and presenting ceramics for the sighted and blind. In order to carve out a new field, I conducted research on the psycho-physiological characteristics that blindness imposes on the individual. By broadening the thematic scope into contemporary art, I spiritually integrated the other part of the audience - the blind. (In the books Tactile Ceramics and Tactile Perception of Ceramics I set out my conceptual program).
What does it mean to you to win the Collectors Art Prize?
I am grateful for this very international recognition. But this special focus on my talent, personality and work by the professional community internationally really came quite unexpectedly. Of course, every award validates the artist and leads him or her with an additional stimulus along the difficult path of art. International success in a contemporary context is always linked to the actuality and relevance of the nominated work. You get an idea of where you are, because experts admire and ensure the effective proof of the correctness of your research searches, decisions and applications. We are all products of our time, and art is a recognized catalyst for the processes that occur in society.
What do you think is the role of art in the world today?
The main role of art is to educate. Its diversity does not prevent its tendencies to orient and develop in a distinctly social way. The universal language of artwork is a powerful tool for changing people's attitudes, but it also requires tangible support from Bulgarian institutions and organizations to stand in front of the fact of its value and worth. A conscious effort is needed to develop and preserve a truly high level of general culture. Otherwise, society will become completely lost in its consumerist settings and preferences.
What would it be if you could change one thing about the art world?
That's a tough question. It's dangerous to make generalizations. In contemporary art, the range is wide because of the variety of goals, viewpoints, and lack of a single organizing principle. But the sacred in its purest form is neglected. Themes related to faith in God are neglected. So the deepest plan is lost, and without it no creative vitality is possible. I look forward to a step-by-step return to the sacred. This will certainly refresh and expand the theme, further developing the sense of vertical universality.
What are your most significant professional achievements?
I haven't thought about. If it comes to awards, I have won more than 30 national and international awards in the field of fine arts. But they have never been an aim in themselves for me. I am only led by the need to do something with my hands - the rest is a consequence of that mental predisposition. I sense something divine in the realization of the mindset to create. I feel myself the creator of an unbeatable reality: like paintings and sculptures are born out of nothing. But the goal is invariably to seek the good of the fellow man.
At the moment, I judge that my greatest success is located in my university years. Then I managed to develop a habit of working in the studio of the Academy of Art from early morning until late at night. I appreciate this as self-overcoming and self-control. The consequences are self-knowledge and knowledge of the humanity in general. This is the primary basis for predictable creative fulfillment, and that in relative independence from foreign influences.
I cannot forget the day when, at the Louis Braille School for the Blind (where I did my first research on touch), a blind child began to read the Braille inscription written on a ceramic object. Before that, I had strong anxieties about whether I had worked it out correctly.
6) What do you wish to tell viewers about your work that might not come out explicitly? What do you hope to inspire with your artwork?
At the opening of my latest exhibition, professor Peter Tsanev shared with the audience that for me the art is a path, a space, a universe, not so much an object, an item or something that is subject to a cult. And really it is. I try to challenge the viewer to think about the meaning of existence. I encourage him indirectly to answer the eternally relevant questions of human existence. Where does man come from? Where is he going and does he really carry the human within him? And in what direction is the world going? Is the Mother Earth in collapse? These are the allusive and questioning messages of my artistic path and language. And I believe this is the basic condition of freedom in the human right to exist.
What advice would you give to the upcoming generation of artists?
Great success requires great sacrifice. It takes dedication, hard work and consistency. But still, art is not bigger than life. Balance is important here.
In what direction would you like to see your career go in the next five years?
I have no big plans. I am led by my inner need to create the ideas that come to me every day. For me, art is a necessity. It is the pure foundation that is a must, and the results will come sooner or later.
Country Bulgaria
Website https://ivankanchev.cloud/
