STATEMENT
Everything in my work is rooted in me—biographically and culturally. My roots, my visions, my issues are represented in my work.
For me, making art combines all kinds of activities: thinking, analyzing, experimenting and above all the effort of synchronize the spirit and the matter...
It's the moment of ''going beyond" - in that solitary act of true creativity, when you listen to the inner voice and recognize how a partnership with the media brings the images from my imagination into physical form.
Everything else follows naturally and the idea becomes 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 (1992-2005). 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 2021, 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 ,Museum of Modern Ceramic Art, Gifu and in other public and major private collections in the United States, Europe and Asia.
She has been exhibited in New York City, Los Angeles, Brussels and Sofia, and has been featured in New York Times, Vogue, and Vanity Fair.