STATEMENT
For me, making art combines all kinds of activities: thinking, analyzing, experimenting and above all the effort to synchronize the spirit (the idea) and the matter (the medium).
My art examines and explores the penetration and interplay of unseen forces of nature that govern our world and the contrasts that unite rather than divide.
The ideas, memories, emotions and confusions come into forms to translate different stories into the language of material. The way I approach the media is very important in recognizing the partnership with the material and the result is a collaboration (between spirit and material) that turns the idea into art!!
BIOGRAPHY
Bulgarian-born Los Angeles-based artist Zlatka Paneva has an MFA from the Academy of Fine Art, Sofia, Bulgaria and studied ceramics at the Carlo Zauli Studio in Faenza, Italy. Paneva is a multidisciplinary artist whose new modes of expression and technical innovation allow her to create art that melts the boundaries between media.
While pursuing her painting career in the US, she began as a fashion illustrator before opening Studio Nine in Los Angeles, where she successfully adapted her art into the design and production of ceramic art, tile and design (1992?-2004?). For over ten years, her products were distributed nationally and internationally through the fine tile and design showrooms Waterworks, Country Floors and Ann Sacks (Kohler Company). Her designs have been installed in private residences, corporate offices and commercial projects.
She expands her creativity with constant experiments, including the combination of traditional skills with the most appropriate technological innovations. She has worked as a sculptor, graphic and jewelry designer, tile conservator and interior designer.
In 2010, with her Rococcola collection, Zlatka Paneva came full circle, back to creating art on paper and canvas, but now her work is inspired by design, color and all the media she has succeeded in over the years. Her print and illustration collection RococcoLA enjoys a worldwide cult following and has been licensed to high-profile companies and publications such as The New York Times, Elle, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Capital/Mexico among others.
Since 2018, Z Paneva has focused exclusively on her paintings and ceramics, where with her sense of expansive awareness she is able to melt the boundaries between media to exist in her own unique way of expression. She creates concepts that serve as modern mythologies.
Zlatka Paneva’s work can be found in the collections of the National Museum of Art, Bulgaria; the International Museum of Ceramic Art, Italy and in other public and major private collections in the United States, Europe and Asia.