Sarieva / Gallery at ArtBrussels 2023

Voice Lines
Rudi Ninov
Solo exhibition

Part of Art Brussels 2023
20 – 23 April 2023

Sarieva Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition “Voice Lines” by Rudi Ninov within the framework of Art Brussels 2023. This is the first solo participation of the young Bulgarian artist at an international fair. The project is inspired by the opening paragraph from the MANIFESTO of the first issue of SVEP, 1990 by the visual and mail art poet Vesselin Sariev.
“Voice Lines” reflects Rudi’s ongoing interest in language and writing as an occasion for pictorial exploration. His most recent artistic explorations are directly related to the manifestation of sound in drawing, shape and color. Engaging with composition, color and texture, the young artist’s works evoke a variety of associations that can be related to written language, symbols, sounds or musical visualizations. They reveal Rudi’s unfolding relationship to abstraction from two distinct but adjacent perspectives: the formal and the personal. The artist describes “Voice Lines” as the indeterminate space between two ends, which is never fixed, malleable, where marks can emerge and resonate with deeply personal significance without being codified into purely formal language.
Rudi shares that in 2021 he came across works by Vesselin Sariev created before and immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall in the late 1980s-90s that made him think about “the accumulated sounds which are so inherent to the shape of native letters” and what foreign shapes sound like. During Art Brussels, in newly created works, the artist will present more personal reflections on language, animated cinema and its connection to the art of Vesselin Sariev.
The works are presented in an environment curated by Vesselina Sarieva, including the exhibition gesture “The Carpet”, a proposal for a meeting place in each art installation. It is an alternative to the traditional idea of an gallery, museum, art academy, art fair, etc. Egalitarian, open and accessible for everyone “The Carpet” invites the audience to sit down right next to each other, universalising everyone, regardless if they are visitors, artists, curators, collectors, etc. The concept of “The Carpet” is inspired by a metaphor by the artist Luchezar Boyadjiev and developed into an ongoing project by the curator Vesselina Sarieva.
The exhibition has been selected to participate in the Discovery section of this year’s edition of Art Brussels, which will take place from 21 to 23 April. Founded in 1968, the fair is one of the most renowned contemporary art events in Europe and a must-see art event, welcoming around 25,000 visitors each year. Sarieva Gallery and Rudi Ninov are the only Bulgarian representatives in 2023.
Within the framework of the exhibition at Art Brussels 2023, Sarieva / Gallery has planned informal educational events at its stand – talks and discussions with Bulgarian collectors and admirers of Rudi Ninov’s work, as well as the presentation of an art book, dedicated to the exhibition “Voice Lines”.

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Rudi Ninov (Teteven, Bulgaria, 1992) lives and works in Frankfurt, Germany. He earned a BA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths, University of London, in 2015 and a MFA in the class of Monika Baer, Amy Sillman and Nikolas Gambaroff at Städelschule, Frankfurt, Germany in 2021.
His recent exhibitions include Writing Paintings, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano (2023); Colour Words in Prologue, Sarieva / Gallery, Plovdiv (2021), Brittle Power, Kunsthal 44Møen, Møn (2021); ORBIT, Messeturm, Frankfurt am Main (2020); Gravity works only when you look down, Vaska Emanuilova Gallery, Sofia (2019); FOTEL, Sotheby’s, Frankfurt am Main (2019).
Rudi is also the recipient of the Linklaters LLP Prize, Germany (2020) and Cultural Perspectives Foundation Scholarship, Bulgaria (2019). His works are part of the Museum Voorlinden, Caldic Collection, Wassenaar, The Netherlands; Fondazione CRC, Cuneo, Italy; Imago Mundi Collection, Treviso, Italy.
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Sarieva / Gallery was founded by Vesselina Sarieva in September 2021 as a third generation gallery space. Sarieva / Gallery represents leading artists from the Bulgarian contemporary art scene. At the same time, it is not only a space but a gallery situation, a program and a statement in art which extends beyond any physical borders while encouraging dialogues and the deeper knowledge of the artists’ works. The abundant, ambitious and innovative program reaches beyond the model of either the white cube or the black box. Sarieva / Gallery is part of the hybrid environment of Sarieva HUB together with the Open Arts Foundation and other related organizations.