Anton Stoianov makes paintings, sculptures, installations and mixed media artworks.
Exploring the conceptual aspects of contemporary painting, Anton Stoianov investigates the dynamics of painting in- cluding the manipulation of its effects and the limits of spectacle based on our assumptions of what a painting means to us. Rather than presenting a factual reality, an illusion is fabricated to conjure the realms of our imagination.
In recent years, he has been constantly and skillfully experimenting with materials and technologies and has been inspired by his glassworks training at the Glaser-Innung Berlin.
The resulting works create dynamic compositions, using mirrors, glass and glazes for glass as primary material. The mirrors and glass paintings reflect the surrounding space, creating an environment of visible and faded reflections and shadows. In this new body of work, the artist focuses on one of the rather elusive features of mirrors. They always produce two reflections, a strong one which is actively visible and a faded shadow belonging to the image not made on their reflective side, but on the supporting glass itself. This doubling of reflectivity one facing another, creates a sense of infinity.
His mirror paintings create unusual visual environments and at the same time discreetly brush on important issues of our times. The results are deconstructed to the extent that meaning is shifted and possible interpretation becomes multi-layered, multifaceted. With a conceptual approach, he creates intense personal moments, featuring in unex- pected layers of seductive-repulsive combinations, concerns about the environment, the effects of the politics and de- bate around global warming and climate change.
His works are notable for their perfect finish and tactile nature. This is of great importance and bears witness to great craftsmanship. By focusing on techniques and materials, he considers making art a craft which is executed using clear formal rules and which should always refer to social reality.
His works directly respond to the surrounding environment and uses everyday experiences from the artist as a starting point. Often the artist explores the boundaries of installation display and involve the viewer beyond the traditional assumptions of the field of painting.
Anton Stoianov had numerous solo shows and participations in group projects, most recently at xavierlaboulbenne gallery (Berlin) - Recto-Verso, Arturo Arita, in collaboration with xavierlaboulbenne (Paris) - Warning! The Object ob- serves, Structura Gallery (Sofia) - Fornoteka, Fluca Austrian Cultural Pavillion, Plovdiv - Kulturhauptstadt, Bulgarian Cultural Institute Haus Wittgenstein in Vienna - Æther (Sofia) - Art Cologne 2018...
He currently lives and works in Berlin (Germany).

The shown works are part of the series that Anton Stoianov started in 2018, after a specialization at the Glaser-Innung (The Glazier´s Guild) in Berlin. In order to create them he uses glass, mirrors and pigments. Mirror surfaces add an extra dimension to the otherwise flat objects, incorporating the surroundings, and the constantly changing environment into the image. With their color variations, the work also change the space, reflecting it differently at various hours of the day. The kaleidoscopic vision is perceived throughout the spectrum, from euphoric elation to schizophrenic darkness with an apocalyptic sensability. The vivid resemblance to planets once again highlights the deeper message - the world is predictable, the cosmos is infinite, we are part of it, and every action is important.

In his new works, the artist develops his idea in the direction of viewing and seeing, both within daily practices and on a planetary scale. At the centre of the show, the viewer finds himself between two huge eyes. They remind us of video surveillance, but they also point us to the all-seeing eye (the eye of providence), which is far beyond the earthly order. The artist masterfully blends one of the most prevalent problems of our time - constant observation, monitoring and privacy infringement, with the divine providence - representing spiritual truth and awakening, employing the opposing poles as outlines the project. In addition "camouflage" paintings reinforce the idea of time mimicry and our own fluctuations, internal "shifts", uncertainties and anxieties. The name of the exhibition also serves as a warning - we observe the works, but they are also observing us. It is a process of mutuality that goes beyond delight and opens up a conversation about observation and self-observation, about the exaltation of the vision and the shattering power of viewing it, about looking inside and being looked at, and on the infinite power of this act.

FORNOTECA is a project developed especially for the space of FLUCA. The artist has transformed it into a fairytale garden, a luscious oasis, a green spot in the city map. Amidst this lush vegetation even more fantastic “magic” mirrors flicker. The glitter and unusual colors of the mirrors’ surfaces create a kaleidoscopic reality. On the one hand the thick colored glaze of the mirrors is reminiscent of the glory of times gone by and the secrets of glass vigilantly kept in renaissance Venice. On the other hand these reflective surfaces set inside the glossy FLUCA box, look like the elements of a futuristic capsule. What purpose does it serve? Preserving a piece of nature for the future? Or being used as an experimental station somewhere in outer space? 

Stoianov’s art creates an unusual visual environment and at the same time discreetly touches on important issues of our times. He is an artist who constantly and skillfully experiments with materials and technologies. One example of this is his Mirror Paintings series which was shown for the first time at the xavierlaboulbenne Gallery, Berlin in 2018. This series was inspired by his work with glass at the Glaser-Innung Berlin. His works are characterized by dynamic compositions in harmonious round formats. The drawings on the reflective surface reflect the environment which puts the artist beyond the field of painting into the field of installations.

The same is with his installation at FLUCA. The round mirrors float in the space and thanks to their interaction with the reflected silhouettes of the plants, the viewers passing by and the play of natural or artificial light, they give painting a spatial and architectural presence. 

The idea behind the installation has to do with global warming and climate change, the environment and the politicization of the debate on nature.

FORNOTECA also presents a utopian vision of the urban planning of the future where the oases in our cities will probably be exhibited as rarities in special artificially protected containers. 

Concept and score: Frederic Gies dance: Frederic Gies and Elizabeth Ward music: Fiedel set design: Anton Stoianov lighting design: Thomas Zamolo costumes: Gregorz Matlag/Maldoror makuo (prints for set design) Mario Mendez pictures (prints for set design) Yusuf Etiman

Queens Of The Fauns is a pangender duet danced by Frédéric Gies and Elizabeth Ward, which dialogues with a keystone in dance history: The Afternoon Of A Faun by Nijinsky. To the techno beats of a live set by the dj Fiedel, the two dancers develop a dance conceived as an incantation in which the mythological figures of the faun and of the nymph merge. While leaving the tradition of ballet to create an experimental dance form was central to Nijinsky’s project, their voluptuous dance collapses the distinction between erudite and popular, traditional and experimental forms of dance, creating a poetics of movement and embodiment in which various opposites coexists, dissolve, unite or merge into one another. Queens Of The Fauns also echoes the sexual load of The Afternoon Of A Faun, as the dance and the dancer’s bodies are saturated with sensuality. Nevertheless, this dance escapes the paradigm of the hunter and the hunted present in Nijinsky’s piece and proposes another economy of relationships.

http://fredericgies.com/

Escaping the repetition of stylistic ideas, Anton Stoianov continues to develop new modes of painting through aesthetic inventions.
After the epic stitched worn socks compositions (2012), the series of symbolic objects encased in carbon fiber vinyl (2014, abc Berlin 2015, Art Cologne 2018), Anton Stoianov’ s research at the Glaser-Innung Berlin for the last two years inspired paintings with ecological miralite revolution mirrors, made of silver instead of lead. Rhythmic repetitions and chromatic variations of the surfaces as well as circular formats create a cosmogonical dynamic. The tension between control and hazard of the material produces unexpected layers and seductive-repulsive combinations. The muddied chromatic explosion on cold reflector hints upon the critical reality of planetary doomsday.
If to look in a mirror is to face the gap between our image and the experience that we have of ourselves, these saturated reflections might well be what we look like during the apocalypse.

Concept and dance: Frederic Gies music: Fiedel sculpture: Anton Stoianov lighting design: Thomas Zamolo

Dance in ancent has been presented in different contexts from electronic music festival to contemporary art museum, club, dance and performance venue and festival: Inkonst (Malmö Sweden); Norberfestival (Norberg, Sweden);Serraves- museum of contemporary art(Poro, Portugal);Weld(Stockholm, Sweden); Röda Sten- in cooperation with Skogen(Göteburg, Sweden); Malta festival(Poznan, Poland); Zürich Moves Festival(Zürich, Switzerland).

http://fredericgies.com/

In his second solo exhibition at the gallery, Anton Stoianov expands literal notions of contemporary palladiums and relics (from Latin reliquiae, “remaining”), with a quasi-animist perspective on objects. This re-sublimation of the artwork – or fetishization – tends to place discourse and process in the background and let the intrinsic quality of the picture speaks for itself.
Colliding his interest in the history and recent developments of painting with an anthropological fascination for proletarian stylistic idiosyncrasy, the artist wraps selected items with a custom made carbon fiber vinyl usually applied on car exteriors.  The assisted response of the chosen objects, their weight and volume, with the adhesive material creates and defines peculiar shapes, strokes and textures alluding to painterly gestures and effects.
Though it is not in the reproducible fabrication process but in the precise choice of encased objects, all issued from the most intimate paraphernalia of the artist, that resides the emotional charge of the work. It operates a separation or axiological opposition that puts these trivial commodities outside the realm of banal or common usage in the profane world, evoquing a sense of sacred through their inaccessibility.
An essential characteristic of cultural history and a paradox holding its place in the three great revelations-based religions – Judaism, Christianity, Islam – it is only by covering something up that our gaze is directed to what is hidden, making it visible.

Concept and dance: Frederic Gies music: Fiedel Installation: Anton Stoianov

Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere is an invitation to spend 3 hours and 38 minutes in the same space - an experiment created by the dancer and choreographer Frédéric Gies in collaboration with the dj Fiedel, whose contagious techno beats infuse the space, and the visual artist Anton Stoinaov.

Frédéric Gies fell in love with Fiedel’s work (link), dancing many times on his sets in Berlin at Berghain, where Fiedel is resident. Fiedel started to dj publicly in the mid 90’s on Mondays at a club called Subversiv, which then has been a constant in Berlin’s underground techno scene. He is also part of MMM, a collaboration between him and Errorsmith. Their track “Donna” is considered a much played techno classic. In fall 2012 Fiedel started his own label called ‘Fiedelone’ to release his solo productions.

Berlin was also the meeting point for Frédéric and Anton Stoianov, when the two of them were regulars at the mythical Basso, a place where many artists were mingling, working and partying together. They also shared many nights and days on Berghain’s dance floor. Frédéric proposed Anton to collaborate on this project after seeing his large-scale abstract paintings, made without paint or pigment, but of worn cotton socks. His new body of work is currently presented at xavierlaboulbenne, Berlin.

The experiment “Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere” is part of Frédéric Gies’ research project Bad girls practices: un-writing dance, the body and the choir, currently developed at DOCH – SKH

http://fredericgies.com/

In the last 3 years, the Bulgarian artist based in Berlin has produced large-scale abstract paintings – without paint or pigment. At first glance, the work evokes minimalist subdued compositions until the tri-dimensionality of the medium, grids of variably worn cotton socks, reveals itself to an absurdly abject effect, leading to cognitive dissonance.
Favoring the personal and spiritual, shed away from intellectualism, the artists uses reductive elements that ultimately transcend reality. These biomorphic paintings by Anton Stoianov expresse affinity with repulsive bodies of work situated outside the symbolic order and strategically forced upon the viewer’s gaze in order to maintain boundaries between nature and society.