Stefan Nikolaev was born 1970 in Sofia, Bulgaria. He lives and works in Paris and Sofia. He began his studies at the Fine Arts High School in his native city (1983-1988), followed by a course at the Paris School of Fine Arts (1989-1994) and Winchester School of Art in England (1992).
Stefan Nikolaev represented Bulgaria at the 52nd Venice Biennale. He was the founder and co-head of the Parisian artist-run space Glassbox created in 1997. He received the UNESCO Prize for the Art at the 4th Cetinje Biennial.
His works have been exhibited in 52nd Venice Biennale (Venice), 7th Biennale de Lyon (Lyon), 4th Cetinje Biennial (Cetinje), 4th Gwangju Biennale (Gwangju), K11 MUSEA, Victoria Dosckside (Hong Kong), National Gallery (Sofia), University Art Museum, Contemporary Arts Forum (Santa Barbara), Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum (Shanghai), Temple Bar Gallery (Dublin), Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (Berlin), Kunsthaus Zurich, CCA - Centre for Contemporary Arts (Glasgow), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Sofia Arsenal - Museum for Contemporary Art (Sofia), Zwemmer Art (London), Antrepo 4 (Istanbul), National Museum of Contemporary Art (Athens), Foundation Cartier pour l'art Contemporain (Paris), The State Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia (Moscow), Neues Museum Wesserburg (Bremen), BF15 (Lyon), Fondation d'entreprise Ricard (Paris), CCCOD - Center of Contemporary Creation Olivier Debré (Tours), Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art (Thessaloniki), Musée des beaux-arts (Ho Chi Minh City); Muzeul National de Arta Contemporanea (Bucharest), Ausstellungshalle Zeitgenössiche Kunst (Münster), Casino Luxembourg, (Luxembourg), Kunsthal (Rotterdam), ARC Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris (Paris), Kunstmuseum Bonn (Bonn), Deok Won Museum of Art (Seoul) and others.
Stefan Nikolaev’s works are part of public collections of K11 MUSEA, Victoria Dosckside, Hong Kong; Sofia City Art Gallery, Sofia; Vehbi Koc Foundation, Istanbul; DOT Sofia Art collection, Sofia; Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar; Centre de Création Contemporaine Olivier Debré - CCOD, Tours, France; Musée français de la carte à jouer, Issy-les-Moulineaux, France and others. And part of private collections: Gensollen Collection, Marseilles, France; Dilyana and Spass Roussev, Sofia, London; Château du Rivau, Réméré, France, Alexandre Ricard collection, Paris, and many others.
Stefan Nikolaev’s body of work is quite obviously centered on the multiple transformations and crossovers between what we know about objects from everyday life and what the artist is making us reconsider when thinking about the new form and vision he invests in them. Under the visual surface of his works there is an on-going narrative about the complex relations that the artist has with life and death, time and space, consumerism and basic necessities of life. This story has been unfolding in a fluid current over a period of more than twenty years of his activities on the international art scene. - Iara Boubnova