60x60- The wondering mind

To The Artworks

International group exhibition of graphcs 
Project by gallery “Epreuve d’artiste”- Belgium

08 – 21 June 2022

Opening reception: Wednesday, 08 June 2022, 6:30 PM  

On June 8, 2022, Art Gallery Largo will present to the Varna public the international exhibition of graphics "60x60 - The Wondering Mind". The exhibition is a project of the Belgian graphic gallery "Epreuve d'artiste" and it has been traveling around the world since 2015. The exhibition features 92 graphics by 92 artists from 35 countries around the world. All works are done in the classic graphic techniques of intaglio printing, in a round shape with a size of 12 centimeters in diameter.

The project is the result of many years of cooperation and friendship between Slovak curator Zora Petrashova and Belgian gallery owner and printer Chris Verheien. For more than 20 years, they have been working together on various graphics-related projects. The idea for this exhibition arose on the eve of their 60th birthday. Both were born under the sign of Pisces in the same year and decided to celebrate the upcoming holiday in an unconventional way, inviting sixty artists from more than 20 countries to create a work on the theme "The Wondering Mind" on a printing plate with a diameter of 12 cm. The circulation of each graphic is 60 copies, and the plan of the ambitious organizers is to show the collection in 60 places around the world. The exhibition opened on March 6, 2015 at the Epreuve d’Artiste Gallery in Antwerp. The project then traveled to Slovakia, where it was shown in April 2015, before embarking on a tour of the globe. From March 2015 until today, the exhibition has been shown in more than twenty cities in Belgium, Slovakia, China, Japan, Romania, France, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Norway, Netherlands, New Zealand, Canada, Hungary.

In 2019, the project received a new development. The two curators invited 30 more artists to create their graphics in a round format, and the project is already saying "More Wondering Minds". Thus, in the current exhibition at Largo Art Gallery can be seen 90 works by artists from 35 countries, executed in the techniques of etching, aquatint, mezzotint, drypoint.

The exhibition presents some of the most significant names in the field of graphics and bookplates, many of them known to the Bulgarian public from their participation in the International Bookplate Competition Varna. These are Cleo Wilkinson (Australia), Dimo ​​Kolibarov and Veliko Marinchevski (Bulgaria), Jiri Brazda (Czech Republic), Yuri Nozdrin and Olga Keleinikova (Russia), Konstantin Kalynovich and Oleg Denysenko (Ukraine), Roman Sustov (Belarus), Silvana Martignoni. (Italy). Along with them we will see other important names from the world of graphics such as Johan Kublik and Josef Werner (Germany), Deborah Chapman (Argentina), Roman Romanishin (Ukraine), Vladimir Zuev (Russia), Mikio Watanabe (Japan) and many others. The exhibition features artists from traditionally strong and well-known graphic schools, as well as from countries with lesser-known artists in Europe such as Egypt, Palestine, New Zealand, Iran, Morocco, Nepal and South Africa.

The exhibition "60x60 - The Wondering Mind" is shown in Varna thanks to the partnership and cultural exchange agreement between the Belgian gallery "Epreuve d'artiste" and the Bulgarian gallery "Largo". During the partnership in September 2022 in the gallery "Epreuve d'artiste" in Antwerp will be shown two exhibitions of graphics - a representative exhibition "The best of the International Bookplate Competition Varna" and a group exhibition-graphics of Bulgarian artists with curators Chris Verheien and Nelly Valcheva.

We look forward to seeing you at the opening on Wednesday, June 8, at 6:30 pm at Largo Art Gallery at 8 Han Krum Street, Varna. The exhibition lasts until June 21, 2022. The exhibition is realized with the financial support of the National Culture Fund.