Vessela Brakalova: Prevailing Light
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Brake or Break #1 -
Pillars of Change -
Reconstructing Home -
The Fishery Castle -
Pineapple Express -
Heat Dome -
Navigational Confusion -
New Way of Seeing -
Pendulum Swings -
Our House Is On Fire -
Snowmageddon or is it? -
Yellow Fog -
The Russian Roulette -
It's a Pet Day
Christina Parker Gallery is pleased to announce Prevailing Light, an exhibition of new multi-media works by Vessela Brakalova. The exhibition will open with an artist reception on Friday, Sep. 29 from 6–8pm, and will continue until Oct 31. Music at the opening reception will be provided by Boyd Chubbs.
We hope you can also join us for an artist talk and walking tour of the exhibition on Saturday, Oct 14, from 3–4pm.
Light brings life. It’s the literal core of our existence, the metaphorical cornerstone of our lives.
Prevailing Light is a collection of recent multi-media works that explore Vessela Brakalova’s relationship with light, and what that light reveals.
Brakalova builds on her European roots to create confident, complex art from materials that define our industrial era: metal, glass, plastic and resin. These works present a personal and specific reaction to living in our time of existential uncertainty.
Brakalova’s constructions are made primarily from cut glass, with the addition of metal, plastic, and resin. Intricate, layered, and sometimes abstract images of buildings, boats and skies are grounded by titles including Russian Roulette, Heat Dome and Yellow Fog.
“These works are my personal reaction to living through an era of shifting environmental and political realities. They come from my need to make art that’s a physical record of the inner experience.”
“Chasing the light drives my creative process. Glass is my medium for capturing, embracing, and reflecting that light.”
Glass is one of the oldest man-made composites, and still one of our most essential commodities; a cost-effective way to package beer, improve your vision, or send data at the speed of light. A time-tested material for an artist whose European training builds on techniques that go back millennia.
“Glass demands attention. Smooth surfaces and hard lines give it glitter, sheen and depth. It’s bold and substantial, fragile and dangerous. Sometimes, the challenge is keeping it subtle. The magic happens when you give it soul.”
Soul that’s revealed through Brakalova’s deft and sensitive search for meaning on every scale, whether it’s a local community’s struggle to survive, or the future of the planet.
Vessela Brakalova moved to St. John’s from Bulgaria in 1990. She was born and raised in the city of Sofia where she earned a master’s degree in book illustration and design. She arrived in Canada as a political refugee and single mother and over the last 30 years has built a full life and wide-ranging practice. Her multi-media artworks are found in public and private collections, museums, and large-scale public art installations. She is also an interpretive designer and co-founder of Vis-a-Vis Graphics.