KRASSEN KRALEV
Krassen Kralev
Born on January 2, 1967, in Varna. Graduated from First Language High School and the Higher Medical University in Varna. Specialized in Political Campaign Management at the University of South Carolina, USA in 1990. Established expert with 25 years of practice in public communications, with results recognized by professional forums in New York, London, Cannes, and Sofia.
Member of Parliament from GERB Political Party in the XLIII, XLIV, XLV, XLVI, XLVII, XLVIII, XLIX, L, and LI National Assembly. Minister of Youth and Sports from 2014 to 2021.
Has held 6 solo exhibitions. The first one was in January 2017. The proceeds from the 42 sold paintings were donated to the "Bulgarian Sport" Foundation for charitable purposes. In August 2022, he opened his second solo exhibition in his hometown. The exhibition was for charity, with the proceeds donated to the Union of Bulgarian Artists in Varna. By the end of 2022, he held two more solo exhibitions - in Sofia and Plovdiv. In August 2023, he participated in the XXII International Biennial of Graphics in Varna. In October, he presented his 5th solo exhibition in Sofia. In June 2024, his 6th solo exhibition was opened.
Over 120 of his works have been purchased in Bulgaria and abroad.
Vezhdi Rashidov, sculptor
Everyone has their own window to look through it and to begin to see. And if we look at the art as emotionality that arises from impressions, images and colors, then in Krassen Kralev's paintings we can see the window through which he looks. What this window brings is the knowledge of the world, the colors of life, the variety that man wishes to reproduce, refracted through his own worldview and his own soul. I believe that the soul of my friend Krassen helpfully responded in his attitude to life, bursting with its colors and entering a world of creativity whose ways are always unknown.
Roads that bring the beauty and the palette of colors that make life beautiful. With these paintings, he discovers the path along which an emotional talent travels. This path is sometimes emotionally easy, sometimes – very difficult, but always leads to the most beautiful lie in life – the Art. This is one illusion of escape in the harsh times in which one can live. [January 2017]
Venceslav Antonov – president of The Union of Bulgarian Artists - Varna
In his paintings, Krassen Kralev treats the subjects with pronounced decorativeness, with an approach that is distinguished by expressiveness, in which a plastic organization is achieved with point, line, shape and color. With his paintings, the author builds on his visual and artistic culture. He began his professional creative career in Varna, in the field of advertising, spatial and graphic design. This is the field where his professional achievements are.
The contribution of Krassen Kralev to shield his individuality in contemporary modern art, to guarantee his own approach, form and stylistic diversity, is indisputable. His personal choice helps to reflect the dynamics of various solutions, forms, symbols and images. Building one's own position guarantees personal initiative in the realization of the works.
The author's ability to grasp and create works provoked by the conscious and subconscious is influenced by symbols that appear in form and color, often as visions or unconscious telepathy. The eye and the brain are but one instrument by means of which sight enables the realization of spiritual feeling. Thus a piece of matter becomes capable of creating a work of art, according to the laws of beauty. The reality of this holds on to the artist's spiritual urge to convey an exquisite form of the image.
In the works of the author, the moment of movement, of the fleeting and the temporary, is emphasized in all the comprehensiveness of timelessness. Thought constructs emphasize the intellect and emotion of the plots. They become messages, with a claim to confirm the creator and his work, on the basis of lasting values. All this defines Krassen Kralev as a free artist who makes a personal contribution to his creativity in contemporary fine art. [August 2022]
Vezhdi Rashidov, sculptor
Krassen Kralev is a rare phenomenon who, for years, standing in silence, carries the sensitivity of a person who loves creativity and devotes himself to it, who finds peace of his soul in the gentle sensitivity of color in the paintings he creates.
A person who carries within himself and belongs with the color that both mentally frees him and recharges him. An art interesting by itself and a kind of experimental - both for him and for Art Gallery Vejdi, whose main policy is to show established, big names in art, but also young talents and experimenters with restless souls like Krassen Kralev.
The path of everyone who carries the talent within themselves, regardless of when and how, like the genius work of a Gauguin, who began only at the age of forty, proves that talent lives in each of us, and when it will break through is a matter of time.
Krassen Kralev is an interesting artist whom I sincerely wish good luck in his experiments. This is the way. [November 2022]
Bozhidar Savov
There are many necessary qualities for a person to be a creator. Talent, inspiration and persistence are the most necessary. Krassen Kralev categorically owns all three. Most people know him as an athlete and a politician, and until recently did not suspect that he was also an artist. He is assisted by his experience in the field of advertising, spatial and graphic design, where he is an undisputed authority. It turned out that Krassen Kralev has been pouring out thoughts and emotions on the white canvas for a long time. I would say he does it extremely professionally. His works are modern and expressive, compositionally strong and rich in color. At first glance, they are decorative, but they burst with light and mood, thoughts and feelings. The static in his paintings is apparent, and looking into them, the viewer discovers the dynamics of geometric figures and symbols united in a compositional unity. The author has his own style and penmanship, built on a solid knowledge in the field of national and world art.
Krassen Kralev's exhibition at the Art club & gallery SAVOV is the fourth in his career as an artist. After Varna and Sofia, his works visited Plovdiv. His paintings are already well known to connoisseurs. They decorate homes and offices and are owned by private collectors and galleries from the country and abroad. I am possitive that the art of Krassen Kralev will meet its well-deserved admirers in Plovdiv as well. [December 2022]