International Exlibris Competition Varna visits Sliven for the second time
The penultimate stop on the journey of the sixth International Exlibris Competition Varna is in Sliven. From May 14, 2026, the competition will be presented to the students and teachers of the National Art High School "Dimitar Dobrovich". The realization of this visit is possible thanks to the financial support of the National Culture Fund under the program "Creation and/or Distribution - Small Projects 2025".
This is the second presentation of the exhibition in the "NOVA" gallery of the Sliven art school. The first visit two years ago was met with great interest by both the students and the teachers and the management of the high school. Vesselin Damyanov - Ves, winner of the second edition of the Varna competition and one of the most awarded Bulgarian exlibris artists abroad, is also from Sliven. He has been invited to be a special guest at the opening of the exhibition at the school.
The term exlibris comes from the Latin "ex libris" ("from the books of", "from the library of"). Its original purpose was to serve as a sign of book ownership. The first patrons of bookplates were the clergy, the aristocracy, and people who owned large libraries. In the last century, this utilitarian purpose lost its importance and so-called “collector” bookplates began to be created more and more, the circulations of which were used for exchange between passionate collectors scattered throughout Europe and the world.
These collectors gather once every two years at the world congress of the International Federation of Bookplate Societies FISAE, where they exchange works from their collections and order new bookplates from artists. Such a congress will be held for the first time in Bulgaria from September 1 to 6, 2026. The event is organized by the Jordan Petkov Art Foundation, and the venue is the seaside capital of Bulgaria - Varna.
It is in Varna that an active scene dedicated to this specific art has been created over the past fifteen years, the main driving force of which is the Largo Gallery. Since 2010, the gallery has organized dozens of events dedicated to graphics, and the International Exlibris Competition has already established itself as a significant international forum. Over 850 authors from different countries have participated in its six editions, with over 300 of them being represented in the exhibitions.
In the current exhibition, students from the Sliven Art High School will get to know the graphics of world-renowned artists working in the field of small graphics and bookplates, such as Veselin Damyanov – Ves, Petar Lazarov, Kalina Kraleva - winner of the second prize in the competition, Ryszard Balon from Poland - winner of the first prize in the competition, Lembit Lohmus (Estonia), Konstantin Kalinovich and Mykhailo Drymailo from Ukraine, Shigeki Tomura from Japan, Mauricio Schwartzman from Argentina, Ivo Mosele from Italy, Jiri Brazda from the Czech Republic and others.
Since 2014, the traveling exhibition with a selection from the competition has already been presented in 14 Bulgarian cities, in dozens of cultural and educational institutions - art schools, universities, galleries and museums, community centers. Since its inception, the competition has been implemented with the support of the Municipality of Varna through the Culture Fund, and the traveling exhibitions in 2024 and 2026 are supported by the National Culture Fund. The exhibition will be a guest at the Sliven Art School until June 1, 2026, after which it will travel to Pomorie.
Nelly Valcheva, Executive Director
International Exlibris Competition Varna
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