Axelle Fine Arts Galerie welcomes back contemporary French Bulgarian painter Albert Hadjiganev to Soho for his 11th solo exhibition. As a minimalist, Hadjiganev captures the simple moments of daily life with only a few elements.The all-new collection includes lush landscapes, seascapes and intimate still-lives.

Hadjiganev’s depiction of nature is wild and overgrown, ripe with dramatic shadows and brilliant light. The extraordinary quality of the artist’s paintings is derived not from his subjects, which are often as simple as an apple on a windowsill, but from his sensitive treatment of light, color and shadows. Hadjiganev paints with bold brushstrokes and shades of green, greys and blues. Deep emotion, stark contrasts and unusual framed perspectives characterize his work. His large oils on canvas capture the conflicting dualities inherent in the natural world – light and dark, freedom and control, beauty and melancholy. His works maintain a delicate balance between a sense of foreboding and one of welcoming– many paintings actually invite the viewer to step into the scene through an open door or window. In others, the dark, grey skies loom over sweeping landscapes, often with just a small hint of the emerging sun. Hadjiganev’s landscapes are simultaneously perceptive impressions of the physical world and visual representations of the artist’s life, struggles and views on humanity. Hadjiganev states:

I do not know what is to come. It is the canvas that decides- I am merely a tool. I become very small. I do not paint to make something pretty. I paint to put my heart in my paintings.”

Born in 1954 in Bulgaria to a family of artists, Hadjiganev was constantly influenced by his father’s paintings and brother’s sculptures. In 1977, he enrolled at The National School of Photography in Sofia, Bulgaria. However, he constantly kept sight of his ultimate goal: to study at the prestigious Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. At the age of 28, he left his native home and walked across the border. After numerous hardships, he finally reached Paris. By 1987, his struggle paid off and he reached his goal – he graduated from the Ecole des Beaux Arts. He has lived in France ever since. In 1989, he was the recipient of the coveted Grand Prix de Peinture of the Academie des Beaux-Arts and in 1990, he received the Prix du Gouvernement Princier at the Salon International d’Art Contemporain in Monaco. Since then, Hadjiganev has had over 40 solo exhibitions in the US and in Europe. Hadjiganev will attend the opening reception at Axelle on March 7.