Alzek Misheff will be awarded the honorary title of Doctor Honoris Causa of the National Academy of Art
2025.05.07
On 11 May 2025, on the Day of the saints Cyril and Methodius, the Equal-to-the-Apostles, in the meeting hall of the Municipal Council of Acqui Terme, Italy, the artist Alzek Misheff will be awarded the honorary title of Doctor Honoris Causa of the National Academy of Art, Sofia for his exceptional merits and contribution to the development of contemporary visual art.
The official ceremony of awarding is organised by the Consulate General of the Republic of Bulgaria in Milan and the Municipality of Acqui Terme.
The awarding will be performed by the Rector of the National Academy of Art Prof. Georgi Iankov, in the presence of the Mayor of Acqui Terme Mr Danilo Rapetti, the Consul General of Bulgaria in Milan Ms Ana Paskaleva, the Director of the Cultural Institute under the Minister of Foreign Affairs Ms Snezhana Yoveva-Dimitrova, and other official guests.
The artistic path of the conceptualist artist Alzek Misheff is a long list of creative activities in the field of contemporary art, realised in various, up-to-date media. He conceptualises and performances, actions, urban events, improvisations (including musical ones), happenings, installations, creates paintings, drawings, sculptures in the most diverse spaces around the world – various-purpose buildings, city squares, churches, art galleries and museums, universities, theatres, ships, swimming pools, billboards, air, water. He has presented solo exhibitions, performed concerts together with orchestras, famous musicians and his quartet The Swimmers, participated in biennials and collective exhibitions. He has realised projects of various scale and concepts in Austria (Graz), USA (San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Carlsbad in New Mexico), Canada (Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal), Italy (Milan, Turin, Bologna, Pavia , Naples, Ancona, Ferrara, Capri, Genoa, Venice, Acqui Terme), France (Grenoble), Bulgaria (Sofia, Varna, Balchik).
Born in 1940 in Dupnitsa (Bulgaria), the heir to a family of painters, he is one of the four famous artists of Bulgarian origin, who have achieved success outside Bulgaria. After graduating from the Art Academy in Sofia in 1971, he emigrated to Milan, Italy, where he is still lives and working. His contribution to contemporary European art has been recognised by Western critics, and his artistic work is original and unique in its essence. In his book "Europe America – the Different Avant-Gardes" (1976) Aquile Bonito Oliva included him among the 30 most prominent artists in Europe.
Alzek Misheff has participated in collective exhibitions in Belgrade (1976), Montreal (1977), Rome (1977), Gallarate (Varese, 1989), Milan (2000, 2006). In 2021, in 13 halls of the National Gallery (Royal Palace) in Sofia, Alzek Misheff was presented through a large retrospective exhibition.
He is the author of "Apologies, Excuses and Other Stories"; (1976), "My Lies"; (1979), "Swimming Across the Atlantic"; (1982), "Dripping from the Swimmer"; (1985), "Projects and Paintings – 1979/1989" (1989), “Discovering the Warm Water” (2013). Among the publications presenting the artist and his artistic work are "Europe America – The Different Avant-Gardes by Aquile Bonito Oliva (1976), "Performances, Happenings, Actions, Events, Activities, Installations" by Luciano Inga-Pin (1979).
In 2024, the Academic Council of the National Academy of Art took the decitsion to award the artist with the honorary title of Doctor Honoris Causa of the National Academy of Art.
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