Boyan
b. 1975, Bulgaria; lives and works in Israel and Bulgaria.

Rich, dense, and compressed, Boyan's paintings are infused with an absurd quality. Via feverish, decadent and self-aware painting, and the use of vivid, theatrical colors, is works combine borrowed or fictive plots replete with references to cinematic, literary, and historical cultural heroes and objects, with figures and scenes from his intimate, everyday life, such as his home and family. Inspired by painting styles from different periods and alluding to art historical iconography, accessories, and attire, Boyan maps and explores painting as a medium. His paintings offer reflections about legends, faraway places, knights, pirates, and fairies, the magic of a nonexistent time, longing and emotion.

On the truck, Boyan chose to portray pirates, a theme that has interested him throughout his life. He regards pirates as free spirits who can do as they please (not necessarily good deeds), as symbols of rebellion and anarchy, and believes that life in society can also be such. On one side of the truck, he depicted a large pirate ship, deliberately rendered against the direction of the truck's travel, so that "it would be easy to take it off the truck when necessary." On the other side, he made a black and white drawing of three male pirates and one female pirate based on the book Pirates, written and illustrated by Heinz Neukirchen, a German admiral who wrote several maritime books.

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Studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, and at the School of Visual Arts (SVA), New York. His work has been presented in solo exhibitions at the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Herzliya, Israel; Andrea Meislin Gallery, New York; RawArt Gallery, Sommer Contemporary Art, and Gallery 39 for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, etc., as well as in numerous group exhibitions in Israel and around the world, including such venues as Bat Yam Museum of Art, Bat Yam, Israel; Haifa Museum of Art; Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich; and the Herzliya Biennial for Contemporary Art, Herzliya, Israel. His works are in private and public collections in England, Switzerland, the USA, and Israel.

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Courtesy of RawArt Gallery, Tel Aviv