Vasilena Gankovska

Vasilena Gankovska

Born in 1978, Troyan, Bulgaria
Lives and works in Vienna and Sofia
www.vasilenagankovska.com

Education

 

2006
Master of Fine Arts, Academy of fine arts Vienna, Austria (Prof. Hubert Schmalix, Prof. Peter Dressler)
2001
Master of Arts, National Art Academy Sofia, Bulgaria

Selected solo exhibitions

 

2022

In the Blind Spot of the Painting, +359 Gallery, Water Tower, Sofia, Bulgarien

Proekt Kino Kosmos, Scope BLN, Berlin

Albena — Donauinsel — Ostia — Seestadt — Varna, Vasilena Gankovska @DIT, invited by OWG (Salvatore Viviano), DIT, Schleifmühlgasse, Wien

 

2019
Cinema Hall – the forgotten common place, Labyrinth Gallery, part of Night 2019, Plovdiv
Contemporary News* Shepard Fairy meets Vasilena Gankovska, Hilger NEXT, Vienna

2018
Moscow Cinema Project, House on the Embankment, Moscow
Visual Strategies - Insights and Methods, (installation), CCI Fabrika, Moscow

2017
Situation 3, Studio Mariahilferstraße, Vienna
Situation 2, part 1, Mandelkern project, Vienna

2016

Situation 1, ongoing project, various locations in Vienna

Selected group exhibitions and projects

 

2023

Eleven, Host Gallery Sofia

Vasilena Gankovska: Spatial Objectivism, time4artists residency, Vienna
Queer Art Spaces Vienna 2023, Kunsthalle Exnergasse WUK, Vienna

 

2022

Was uns wichtig ist! Herausforderung Kulturerbe, vorarlberg museum, Bregenz, curated by Christa Benzer and Sabine Benzer

Was uns wichtig ist!, Volkskundemuseum, Vienna, curated by Christa Benzer and Sabine Benzer
Ritual gatherings festival 2022, Varna – Kamchiya
Artist – Collector – Public The Hilger Collection, Mestna Galerija Ljubljana, Slowenien

2020
Graffiti and Bananas. Die Kunst der Straße, Nordico Stadtmuseum, Linz, Austria
Live painting performance, viennacontemporary, Vienna, 24 – 27.09.2020
Seestadt – eine visuelle Bestandsaufnahme (ongoing project), visual notes on Seestadt Vienna
Interview with a virus (after W. Burroughs), online project for works.io
Multiple Singularities, xhibit, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
Bleischwer, Fabrikraum Project Space, Vienna (with Lara Erel and Jelena Micic)

2019
24 Gabrovo Biennial of humour and satire in art, Museum of humour and satire, Gabrovo, Bulgaria
0 GMS drawer at Vaska Emanouilova Gallery, Sofia, curated by Vladiya Mihailova
Looking at Buildings, Cities and Places, presentation and talk, with Bianca Pedrina, FLUCA, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Sense for a city, a project by Bulgarian Fund for Women in the frame of Plovdiv 2019 (mural)
Doba obnove III, Galerija Reflektor, Uzice, Serbia
Sofia Art Week great but late, curatorial statement (with Jelena Micic), Underground Gallery, Sofia
Notgalerie Kunstland Nord, end of season (Intervention in the public space with Anne Glassner), Notgalerie, Vienna
Shape of Scars, LLLLLLI, Vienna, curated by Boris Kostadinov
Na Raione, Odnushka, Novo Molokovo, Moscow (curated by Simon Mraz)
In situ, CCI Fabrika, Moskau (curated by Anna Kozlovskaya and Kristina Pestova)

2017
Shifting the layers, Sofia City Art Gallery, Sofia
Places of pleasure, Sofia City Art Gallery, Sofia

Donne dimenticate, Bulgarian cultural institute "Haus Wittgenstein", Vienna

PAST PRESENT FUTURE, group exhibition, ARcc.art Open Space Vienna
On being…greeted, Performance by Kamen Stoyanov with Vasilena Gankovska, Forum Stadtpark, Graz

Versuchanordnung widerspenstigen Handelns, a project by Elke Smodics, GALERIE IG BILDENDE KUNST, Vienna (mural)

2016

The Hilger Collection Part 2. Painted Surfaces, HilgerBROTKunsthalle, Vienna

On being…greeted, Performance by Kamen Stoyanov with Vasilena Gankovska as part of FEMTRAILS, Performance event, curated by Katharina Swoboda (Golden Pixel Cooperative), Spektakel, Vienna

Presentation at vienna contemporary, Galerie Ernst Hilger, Vienna
Ask The Artist, Performance by Kamen Stoyanov, with Vasilena Gankovska and Boris Kostadinov, Cabaret der Künste – Zunfthaus Voltaire, Manifesta 11, Zürich

Objects of Subjectivity, LLLLLI, Vienna

Selected publications and articles

 

Flightbook/Bulgaria, Austrian Art Lounge #2, Hilger, Ernst, Wieser Lojze (Ed.), Wieser Publishing House, Austria, 2006

„The boarders, between welcome and good-bye“, exhibition review, Vladiya Mihayova, LIK, 1 issue 2008

„Urban Melodramas“, exhibition review, Radeva, Daniela, Springerin, Hefte zur Kunst, 3/08, p.67

„Bulgaria, The New Generation of ‚Exported/Imported’ Bulgarian Artists“, Yana Kostova, EIKON, #63, 2008

Current Scene Bulgaria, exhibition catalogue, 2008

„Wien Ansich [t]“, exhibition catalogue, Kro Art Gallery/Georg Loewitt, ed., 2008

Get Connected, Artists from the Alexander Reznikov Collection, Austrian Art Lounge # 11,

Galerie Ernst Hilger/Hilger contemporary, 2009.

„From Ideology to Economy. Contemporary Bulgarian Art 20 years later“, publication to the exhibition, ICA Sofia, ed. text contribution by Vladiya Mihailova, 2009

„From yesterday till tomorrow. Sofia monuments“, exhibition catalogue, 2009

Vassileva Maria, Serafimov Roumen, Radeva Daniela, "The Big Wave/August in Art 2010", exhibition catalogue, 2010

„Vasilena Gankovska featuring PERFEKT WORLD“, review, FAQ Magazine Nr.18, July-September issue 2012, text by Boris Kostadinov.

„Vasilena Gankovska featuring PERFEKT WORLD“, review, ArtNews, September issue 2012, Text by Helen Chang

"The Keyhole of Mr. Wittgenstein, Kostadinov, Boris, (ed.), Sofia/Vienna, 2013

"Kunst im öffentlichen Raum. Streitbares Geschöpf", Die Presse - Schaufenster, 21.Juni 2013

HR-Stamenov, Vassileva Maria (ed.), "Bulgarian Artists in Vienna. Contemporary Practices at the Begining of the 21st Century", Sofia, 2013

"Cash, Cans & Candy", Galerie Ernst Hilger (ed.), Verlag für Moderne Kunst Nürnberg, 2014

"Caution: wet paint!", exhibition catalogue, Vassileva Maria, Radeva Daniela, Mihaylova Vladiya, (ed.), City Art Gallery Sofia, 2015
"Vasilena Gankovska Tracking the Traces", monography, Galerie Ernst Hilger (ed.), Verlag für Moderne Kunst, Vienna, 2016

PAST PRESENT FUTURE, exhibition catalogue, Schmid Sira-Zoé, Haslinger Sophie, Rudorfer Veronika (ed.), Vienna, 2017

Moscow Cinema Project, article, Artizanin, isssue15/2018, p. 158 - 164 (in Bulgarian)

24 Gabrovo Biennial of humour and satire in art, Museum of humour and satire, Gabrovo, Bulgaria, catalogue, 2019
Moscow Cinema Project, Gankovska Vasilena (ed.), with texts by Simon Mraz and Andreas Spiegl, 2019

Na Rajone. Art and life beyond the center. Cultural dynamics and artistic power between the central districts and peripheries of Moscow and Vienna, Sion Mraz (ed.), Austrian Cultural Forum Moscow, 2020

 

Works in public and private collections

 

City of Vienna
Austrian Federal Chancellery
Collection of the European Parliament in Brussel
Collection of the City Art Gallery Sofia
National endowment fund “13 centuries Bulgaria”
Other private collections in Austria, Bulgaria and Germany