opening: 28 July, Tuesday, 6 pm

Institute for Contemporary Art – Sofia and Edmond Demirdjian Foundation in partnership with Sofia City Art Gallery and Lachezar Tsotsorkov Foundation present an exhibition of the nominated artists for the BAZA 2025 Award for Contemporary Art:

Elena Chergilanova, Martian Tabakov, Martin Atanasov, Nikola Stoyanov, Sofia Dimova

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The Young Artist Award was first established in 1990 in the Czech Republic by Wendy Luers, founder of the Civil Society Foundation (USA) at the initiative of Vaclav Havel. Today, it exists in twelve Central and Eastern European countries, united in the YVAA International Young Visual Artist Awards Network. The award consists of a two-month artist residency at Residency Unlimited, New York, and a solo exhibition at the ICA-Sofia Gallery. The award is sponsored by the Trust for Mutual Understanding, New York.

The BAZA Award in Bulgaria was founded at the initiative of Maria Vassileva in 2008 and is administered by the Institute of Contemporary Art - Sofia and the Edmond Demirdjian Foundation. The competition is open to artists up to 35 years of age. The jury, whose members are replaced every two years, selects between four and eight nominees. The exhibition of works by the selected artists is hosted by the Sofia City Art Gallery. The winner is announced during the exhibition opening.

BAZA Award winners thus far include: Rada Boukova (2008), Samuil Stoyanov (2009), Anton Terziev (2010), Vikenti Komitski (2011), Leda Ekimova (2012), Kiril Kuzmanov (2013), Zoran Georgiev (2014), Aleksandra Chaushova (2015), Dimitar Shopov (2016), Martina Vacheva (2017), Martin Penev (2018), Valko Chobanov (2019), Maria Nalbantova (2020), Marta Djourina (2021), Krasimira Butseva (2022), Viktor Petrov (2023), Tsvetomira Borisova (2024), Slava George (2025).

Members of the BAZA 2026 jury are: Boyana Dzhikova (curator and gallerist), Claire Gilman (Curator and Head of the Department of Modern and Contemporary Drawings, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York), Luchezar Boyadjiev (artist), Theodora Kotseva (curator and gallerist), and Janka Vukmir (art historian and curator, Croatia).

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Address:

Sofia City Art Gallery
1, Gen. Gurko Street, Sofia, Bulgaria

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