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Tchouki
Crossing Over
August 15 - September 7, 2002


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PRESS RELEASE
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Press Release

AUG. 15—SEPT. 7, 2002
TCHOUKI
CROSSING OVER

OPENING RECEPTION:
THURSDAY | AUG 15TH, 2002 | 6-8PM

Gallery@49 is pleased to announce the opening of the first solo New York exhibition of young Bulgarian artist Stoyan Tchoukanov "Tchouki." "Crossing Over" will feature paintings and works on paper—oils, watercolors, and lithographs—expressionistic bridges between the concrete & the abstract, poetry & art, the physical & the spiritual. In this exhibition, Tchouki explores the borders of national and ethnic boundaries connected by his abstract expressionistic artwork. Impressed by the poetry of Barkan, which reaches out beyond the base of his Jewish background, and the actual physical bridges of New York City, Tchouki has created a panoply of color and line which translates and transmutes across linguistic, graphic, and cultural barriers, immersing the viewer in a kaleidoscope of multicultural/multimedia imaginative interchange.

Tchouki was born in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1970. In 1996, he earned his MFA at The National Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia and since 1993, he has had twenty-two solo exhibitions and more than fifty group shows throughout Europe and USA. He is the recipient of the Grand Prix for Graphics, Third International Biennial Art of the Miniature, Gorni Milanovac, Serbia (1994), the Honor Prize for Achievements in Graphics, Fifth International Triennial, Chamalier, France (2000), and several national prizes. Currently he is working in the fields of painting, printing, murals, and book design. His latest book designs include the bilingual (English-Bulgarian) editions of Stanley Kunitz, Henry Taylor, and Stanley H. Barkan,’s Naming the Birds.

Stanley Barkan (born in Brooklyn, 1936) has published ten books of poetry. In 1976 & 1978, he represented the United States at the "Struga Poetry Evenings" in Macedonia. In 1978, he was a Fellow of the Stichting/Amsterdam and was awarded a medal for his contribution to the arts in Sicily. In 1996, O Jerusalem (with photographs by Ron Agam) was presented in celebration of the 3000th anniversary of Jerusalem at City Hall's Tweed Gallery by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. To date, his poetry has been translated into twenty languages. His latest bilingual editions include: Under the Apple Tree / Pod jablonia, translated into Polish by Adam Szyper (Kraków. Poland: Oficyna Konfraterni Poetów, 1998); Bubbemeises & Babbaluci, translated into Italian by Nina & Nat Scammacca (Trapani, Sicily: Coop. Ed. Antigruppo Siciliano, 2001); and the book which is on exhibit, Naming the Birds, translated into Bulgarian by Vladimir Levchev (Sofia, Bulgaria: Bulgarian-American Cultural Society "Aleko," 2002). Mr. Barkan will read from his poetry and sign copies of "Naming the Birds" during the opening reception.

"Crossing Over" will be on view at Gallery@49, located at 322 West 49th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues), can be reached by subways E, C to 50th St. or N, R to 49th St. Summer Hours: Tuesday-Friday, 2-8 PM and by appointment. For additional information or visual material, please call (212) 767-0855.