"Departure Residue," by Preslav Kostov, showcases a complex entanglement of distorted, intertwined figures, utilizing a subdued color palette reminiscent of Old Masters. The composition is a surreal amalgam of abstracted human forms, blending aggression with sensuality in an ambiguous space. Kostov's style mirrors the expressionist distortion of Francis Bacon, with a fluidity that evokes automatist techniques akin to surrealism. This piece emerges from a liminal space, reflecting on identity and the transient nature of existence, influenced by Kostov’s exploration of immigrant experiences and identity formation. ...
The many tangled figures of Preslav Kostov’s imposing paintings jostle against one another, groping and clutching, and stay suspended in action, as in history painting, but remain untethered from any specific narrative, any grounding element that may lend itself to easy interpretation. With a lugubrious palette drawn from Old Masters paintings, and a sense of figurative distortion recalling certain works by Francis Bacon, such expressions of painterly virtuosity at first obscure Kostov’s seemingly automatist approach to composition, both the surrealist kind, in the lineage of Andre Masson, and the sort of uncanny images produced in recent years by artificial intelligence programs. Whether referring to the bardo or the algorithm, these paintings seem to emerge from an interstitial space between aggression and eroticism, the actual and the virtual, the historical and the present – a liminality informed by Kostov’s own personal histories, his acute understanding of immigrant experience and identity formation. ...
