Exhibition

“Fire, Follow Me”

Lyube Petrov

2 – 25 November 2023

 

“Fire, Follow Me” is a pursuit of balance through consciousness of purification. A symbol of this is fire, which is also a metaphor for love. The characters depicted are in absolute symbiosis, but they can be mistaken as experiencing pain and sadness The artist enjoys the tension created in this way, enhanced by the sharp color contrast, the work with the texture and the plasticity of the paint. The figures engulfed in flames recreate the degree of emotion and degree of the moment…/ Yana Bratanova/

Lyube Petrov

„Before all this sincere and burning love, the characters in the paintings were lonely seekers of love, attention and attraction. In the “relationships” series (post-COVID period) I was looking for the relationship and communication between two lovers. The characters became entangled in different narratives that drew all the energy of the “relationship” series. One after another, the characters changed their visual character and tried to free themselves from some shackles, perhaps shackles of themselves, shackles of everyday life, shackles of violent and unrequited love. The figures constantly change their dominance, but always perform some kind of love ritual.

“Burn baby, burn..”
oil on canvas
165 x 130cm, 2022

“The feeling of…”
oil on canvas,
100 x 80cm, 2023

Lyube Petrov / Lyube
Born 1984 in Burgas, Bulgaria
Lyube Petrov systematically deals with figural painting. He developed his own specific iconography, which he thoroughly tests and re-enriches. He was born in 1984 in Burgas, he began studying painting at the Academy of Fine Arts, “Mural Painting” in Sofia. After graduating, he moved to Brno, Czech Republic, where he continued to study painting at Martin Mainer’s studio at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Technical University. He currently lives and works in Prague. Although Petrov comes from Bulgaria, in his work it is possible to find significant features that have elements common with Czech art. It is primarily a genetic closeness with the Czech grotesque of the 1970s and 1980s, remarkably synthesized with reference to the Tvrdohlaví art group and its tendency to postmodern reflection of archetype and mythology (Jaroslav Róna).

Fire, follow me is a mantra, a wish, that I want to stay forever inside me and never leave. This feeling, this fire, makes you alive, fearless, risk and fly.