Artist Gergana Nikolova and her life philosophy: “Never Perfect”

A boat trip across Lake Vinkeveen in the Netherlands — and the story of a family parting with their boat, Never Perfect, after 25 years — left a deep impression on artist Gergana Nikolova, inspiring her latest exhibition. Titled after the vessel, the show is on at the Sofia Press gallery-bookshop in the capital until May 8. The paintings are accompanied by authentic sounds and video footage captured during her five-day journey across the lake’s calm waters, adding another layer to the experience.

Nikolova chose to devote herself to art during her final years at the English-language high school in Ruse. Inspired by Michelangelo's sculptures and taking lessons from sculptor Georgi Radulov, she initially aspired to create monumental works. “Later, I decided to move in another direction — painting — because I felt I had more room for interpretation there,” she recalls.

At the National Academy of Arts, her teachers steered her towards new artistic influences. German artists of the New Objectivity movement encouraged her to explore the psychological depth of her portrait subjects, while Georgi Yanakiev, a Burgas-based painter and recipient of the Jackson Pollock award, who would later become the focus of her dissertation, introduced her to abstract art. He showed her that even geometric abstraction can carry emotion and is far from devoid of feeling. She says that what unites her teachers and inspirations is “their strong will to follow their own path and not give in when they believe something must be done”.

Solo exhibitions and numerous appearances at artistic events in Italy, Croatia and Germany have shaped the young artist’s career. When asked what draws audiences in Bulgaria and abroad to her work, Nikolova says:

"When I create something, it becomes part of me and I can't imagine seeing it through the eyes of the audience. Nevertheless, I always hope that the emotion I put into my paintings will reach people. The most important thing for me is that what I want to paint and create as a series is something I have experienced — that it has touched me and taught me something new.”

Like the journey by boat across Lake Vinkeveen. Water opens its arms in welcome, yet just as it can refresh you, it can also destroy. It becomes a mirror too, where imperfections dissolve…

“Water has always fascinated me, and I’ve always felt comfortable in and around it,” Nikolova says. “I’ve always been amazed by reflections on the surface — how they distort, how abstract they are, as if they present another reality. That’s why some of the paintings are deliberately inverted, so that the reflection seems to grow out of the real image. My idea was to recreate the abstract images I see and, through them, convey deeper emotions awakened within me.”

“Never Perfect” is not just about creative inspiration — it also reflects on the idea that, no matter how hard we try, perfection is out of reach. “Maybe that’s where the beauty lies — in always striving for something we can’t quite attain, while learning to accept our flaws and push ourselves a little further,” the artist says.

“I hope anyone who visits the exhibition feels what I felt during that journey across Lake Vinkeveen: a sense of freedom, and the sheer openness of the water,” she adds. ‘I think I’ve managed to capture that. Living close to water changes the atmosphere and shapes the way we live - we depend on it. Visitors will see works of different sizes and hear the surrounding sounds - birdsong, the wind and the rain - which complete the experience and make it more immersive.”

In the days ahead, when the last painting is taken down to make way for a new artist, Nikolova hopes to change direction:

“I always surprise myself with something new, but it takes time for what I’ve done to sink in and for new impressions to build up. And when those impressions ‘ferment’, that’s when the idea will come.”

Editor: E. Karkalanova