Bio

Valko Chobanov is a visual artist and independent curator.

 

“Art is fun for me. Most of what I do is a combination of messages and is a commentary on the social and institutional reality I have to work with. My main inspiration for creating art comes – as paradoxical as it sounds – from nature and the internet, at the same time. My motivation to continue doing contemporary art is due to my great desire to change the way people in Bulgaria look at it.”

Born in 1991 in Plovdiv. He graduated in Scenography at the Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts, Plovdiv and Digital Arts at the National Academy of Arts, Sofia, Bulgaria. He works in the media of painting, video art and performance. In 2017 he had his first solo exhibition „Inorganic / Organic ” produced with the support of the Gaudenz B. Ruf Award and presented at Coffee & Gallery Cu29, Plovdiv. He has participated in various group exhibitions and projects in Bulgaria and abroad, some prominent of which are Art Positive “Formal” (2014), in the Center for Contemporary Art “Banya Starinna” – Plovdiv, curated by Krassimir Dobrev, “Connection: For Bodies of Water ”(2019), in Swimming Pool – Sofia, with curators Veronika Čechová and Tereza Jindrová, “BACKGROUND: young authors from Plovdiv” (2019) – a Sariev Gallery project in Plovdiv, “Open Art Files: Notes and Footnotes” (2019), presented at the “Kapana”- Plovdiv City Art Gallery Hall, with curator Vera Mlechevska, “Digital Ecologies” (2019), at Plovdiv 2019, with curator Dimitrina Sevova, Market of Desire: Earthly/Heavenly (2021) – in the space of the former Shopping Center “Furniture Italy” – Sofia, with curators Boyana Djikova and Aaron Roth, as well as Art Encounters (2021) – the Contemporary Art Biennal in Timisoara, Romania.

His video art works are shown in the Bad Video Art Festival, Moscow, 2018 and in „Niglo“, 2017 as well as #VERYSHORTFILMFEST @ Vine, 2013. His performance art works such as „Pizza slut“ – presented at the DA Fest, 2015 and in the еXAF project space, Plovdiv, while „I have a pale cultural dissonance, yeah like whatever fuck it and feelings and stuff“, 2017 and „LOL“, 2018 were part of the program of the performance art festival Sofia Underground. Valko Chobanov is the BAZA / Young Visual Artists Awards winner in 2019.

His curatorial practice includes various projects such as “My Dear Provincialist” (2017), realized together with the curator Victoria Draganova in Swimming Pool, Sofia, the solo exhibition of Dimitar Shopov “Aunt Milka” (2018) in ICA – Sofia, the group exhibition “Particular Impulse” (2020), which took place in the open stage for art and culture FLUCA in Plovdiv, and later the program of exhibitions for the entire 2021 season of FLUCA. Valko Chobanov is among the initiators and organizers of the annual group exhibition “Onomatopoeia”, which is characterized by the participation of many young Plovdiv artists (realized annually since 2011).

https://www.instagram.com/valko.chobanov/
https://www.xraydio.net/shows/valko-chobanov-xraydio/