Sava Tsonev to present a new sculpture exhibition at Plovdiv’s U.P.A.R.K Gallery

An exhibition of new sculptures by Sava Tsonev opens at U.P.A.R.K Gallery in Plovdiv on September 29.

This marks his second solo exhibition at the gallery.

The exhibition features 15 new sculptures created this year from the artist’s signature material: stone.

The works are crafted primarily from serpentine, red sandstone, and white marble from the island of Thassos.

A unifying theme in the new collection is the quest for primal form—for that specific sign capable of conveying a human presence, state of being, or emotion without explicitly narrating them.

Distant echoes of classical human imagery—the torso, the portrait, the warrior, the loving couple—can be discerned in the sculptures, yet they are liberated from specific detail and transformed into essential sculptural forms.

Hovering between the figurative and the abstract, the form gradually sheds the need to name or define, beginning instead to simply evoke.

Tsonev works with powerful, generalized volumes where soft, almost organic elements meet precisely defined, taut sections.

From this interplay emerge forms with a commanding presence—assertive and masculine, yet simultaneously sensitive and ethereal.

The human figure can transform into a symbol of strength and resilience; two bodies may merge into the almost abstract image of a couple in love; or form may break free entirely from the figurative to stand as an autonomous sculptural experience.

This very movement between the recognizable and the abstract is a defining characteristic of the new collection.

The weight of the stone and the lightness of the form coexist. The stone retains its density and material solidity, yet under the artist’s hands, it acquires a sense of movement and intimacy.

In this exhibition, the human image is not so much a figure to be recognized as a presence to be felt. Tsonev transforms it into an archetypal symbol—laconic, powerful, and open to the viewer’s personal experience. And where the figure fades away, the form itself remains—with its rhythm, tension, and silence.

These new works continue the artist’s exploration of the human figure and abstract form, developing them through the language of contemporary sculpture—employing minimal means, purity of form, and a powerful impact.

U.P.A.R.K Gallery is at 24 Otets Paisii Street, Plovdiv.