Photo Realism Meets Abstract Art

Just as the outpouring of artistic ideas is unexpected and spontaneous, so is a trip into Bulgarian artist Ivan Liotchev's exhibition "Blue Night Air" in the Bryan Center.

It was pure intuition. At first sight, Liotchev's exhibition appeared reminiscent and inspiring-familiar photographs alternated with abstract paintings. All works were exactly the same rectangular size, all equal and at the same time very separate.

"All things are fascinating and equally important, so photography is equally as important as painting, and in fact should not be any different," Liotchev said. "The two are simply pictoral information."

Such information is conveyed through images from the urban and rustic Bulgarian landscape-mainly traditional fence doors from the countryside and urban apartment buildings. The emphasis rests predominantly on doors and windows.

"Windows are the coolest things because you can look out of them and you can see all these things, while also hiding behind them," Liotchev said. "It's like watching a movie at the cinema-you watch it while you're in darkness, in hiding."

"Blue Night Air" carries a similar aura of meaning-it "is the air of discovery." Specifically, Liotchev envisions it as "the air and atmosphere found in Bulgaria, along the Black Sea coast, and most precisely in the romantic city of Burgas."

It is this sequence of experiences, this spirit and beauty of the crisp sea breeze that creates an emotional dimension to the exhibition, infecting it with a sense of inspiration.

Liotchev himself is a recent graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. "Blue Night Air" is his third solo painting exhibition; he has already had exhibitions in Massachusetts, North Carolina and Bulgaria. Yet, for him, the making of art never ceases because ideas are constantly flowing to his mind. Such ideas combine both art and life and "can grow-and always do. [Art] is a cycle, the cycle of life."