For some, life is an endless trial, and for others, it’s fun you go through the storms with. For Onnik Karanfilyan, it must be lived truly. For him, art has always been a challenge, through which we try to reach the Creator and at the same time an endless game.
We present to you a virtuoso artist with incredible imagination, a true master of intaglio in Bulgaria. Over the years, his work has been featured in dozens of solo and group exhibitions around the world. He has won a number of prestigious international awards and his works are part of the collections of connoisseurs of graphic art in Bulgaria and around the world. On January 14, an exhibition will be opened in the beautiful space of “Contrast” Gallery in Sofia, presenting different moments of the author's 30 years of work.
During the dominance of digital technologies, Onnik Karanfilyan continued to work in the technique of dry needle, etching, mezotinot and aquatint. His engravings are literally encyclopedic with rich metaphorical imagery suggesting erudite reading and approach. With multifaceted aesthetic and artistic suggestions, they literally force you to stop, to look at the endless amount of plots, figures and details, often brought together in a phantasmagoric way, typical of this Homo Ludens - an ever-playing, entertaining creator.
Most of Onnik's works are the result of improvisation, in which there are images, symbols and quotes woven together like a kaleidoscope in exquisite engravings. "Life is a rope that you can walk on if you know how to balance," he says. This game Onnik personified by the rope and its knots - "The knots we bind ourselves, in which we become entangled and strive to untangle our whole lives," he says.
Selected prints for the exhibition at “Contrast” Gallery will represent only a small part from the puzzle of the artist's journey so far. It will also feature his ex-libris book signs, signs directly related to the life of the book, which appeared as a peculiar coat of arms in the 15th century. In the ex-libris, Onnik develops his fantasy again with justifiable illustrative expression and ingenuity in the choice of details.
Take the magnifying glass placed next to the engravings in the exhibition to try to unravel the maze of images and events included in his works. So, you might find out why Onnik portrayed himself in "I'm Here" with open arms, triumphantly stepping on the curves of the rope of his own life in the sky.