"Digital Collages" - Exhibition by Plamen Bratanov

Prof. Plamen Bratanov presents for his 70th anniversary
"Digital Collages" at the City Art Gallery of Varna

The exhibition traces the metamorphosis of large-format graphite drawings by the established sculptor, achieved through the means of digital transformation.

From November 11 to 30, 2026, the City Art Gallery "Boris Georgiev" – Varna presents the exhibition "Digital Collages" by Prof. Plamen Bratanov, dedicated to his 70th anniversary.
The exhibition includes experimental works in the format of 100 x 70 cm, created over the last ten years, with the newest ones being from just a month ago. Their backstory begins with a series of large-format drawings "Trans-temporal Abstractions" by the respected sculptor and artist from 2012 at the Varna Gallery, executed with various forms of graphite – powder, blocks, and water-soluble graphite. Even then, he was interested in the possibilities of the well-known material and how it could be taken beyond traditional drawing.

"It is not interesting for me to do something that has already been done, seen. I always try to be a bit more of an explorer in our field," shares Prof. Plamen Bratanov with Nina Lokmadjieva. After the drawings are professionally photographed, the artist begins to experiment with their images – virtually cutting them, mixing fragments from different works, recomposing them, and developing them with the possibilities of digital processing.

"I started cutting from one, mixing with another, adding with the possibilities of Photoshop, enriching the compositions, transforming and recomposing them," the author recounts. For him, this process does not represent the destruction of the original drawings, but their transformation: "It is not destruction in any case; rather, it is a metamorphosis of all the states I have managed to capture in them."

However, digital techniques do not displace classical means in Plamen Bratanov's work. He defines this new line as accompanying – a space for curiosity and experiment that can also receive more lasting development. "I am still a classical artist, sculptor; I draw in the standard way, with this line I rather want to satisfy my curiosity. But who knows, maybe something more lasting can come out of this."

The anniversary exhibition opens a broader conversation about the artist's development over the years – from sculpture and drawing to spatial form, relief, and digital techniques.
Relief occupies a special place in his creative path. Initially, for his anniversary, Prof. Bratanov conceived an exhibition of reliefs but decided to postpone the project until he was convinced he could present it as a complete and finished exhibition.

"Relief in the realm of sculpture is my strong passion," says the artist. His interest in it began in his student years and is linked to admiration for the art of Mesopotamia and Egypt and for Assyro-Babylonian and Egyptian reliefs. Over the years, his attitude towards form has changed. If in his earlier works detail, specificity, and mythological images are present, today he is increasingly attracted to abstraction and the freedom it leaves to the viewer.
"Recently, I have been very tempted by the abstract form of art. I am more pleased by the uncertainty, the lack of specificity, which gives the opportunity not only to the one who creates the art but also to the viewer to complete the work."

This freedom is also at the core of "Digital Collages" – works born from already existing drawings but given their own life through rearrangement, layering, and new ordering of the image.

The exhibition "Digital Collages" by Prof. Plamen Bratanov can be viewed at the City Art Gallery "Boris Georgiev" – Varna from November 11 to 30, 2026.
Opening: November 11, 18:00.

PLAMEN BRATANOV

Prof. Plamen Bratanov was born on November 20, 1955, in Targovishte. In 1982, he graduated in "Sculpture" from the University of Veliko Tarnovo "St. St. Cyril and Methodius". He specialized at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris. He works in the field of sculpture, small plastic arts, relief, drawing, and other genres of visual arts. He holds a doctorate in ergonomics and industrial design.
For many years, he taught drawing at the Technical University – Varna, where he is a professor in the Department of Industrial Design and its head. His teaching activity is related to preparing generations of students in the field of industrial design and visual-plastic culture.

Plamen Bratanov is the author of numerous sculptural works that are permanently present in the urban environment of Varna. Among them are the monuments to the creator of the Sea Garden Anton Novak, to the archaeologists Karel and Hermin Shkorpil, to the sculptor Kiril Shivakov, to the artist Georgi Velchev, to the mayor of Varna Ivan Tserov, to the midwife Baba Rada, and to the football legend of "Cherno More" Ivan Mokanov. He is also the author of the relief of Prince Alexander Battenberg on the building of the State Archive in Varna, symbolic and representative plastics, and several award-winning works.

In his work, relief occupies a special place, which the artist perceives as a territory between sculpture, drawing, and painting.

He has numerous solo exhibitions and participation in national and international artistic events and is the recipient of nine national and international awards. His works are found in the National Art Gallery, the City Art Gallery "Boris Georgiev" – Varna, as well as in galleries and private collections in Bulgaria and abroad.

He is a member of the Union of Bulgarian Artists, Section "Sculpture", of the International Association of Plastic Arts AIAP, and of the international organization Sculpture Network.
He lives and works in Varna.

City Art Gallery "Boris Georgiev" - Varna
Varna, 1 L. Karavelov St.
Working hours: Monday - Saturday: 9:30 - 17:30, closed on Sunday.

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