54TH BIRTHDAY: GALLERY54TH BIRTHDAY: GALLERY
Gallery with photos from our Festive Program for April 1, 2026. Thanks to RadLab Studio – Ivelin Penchev.
Category: Exhibitions
FANGIRLFANGIRL
Solo Exhibition at Museum of Humor and Satire
Curator: Reneta Georgieva
January 16 – February 16 2026
In the exhibition FANGIRL, Nevena Ekimova undertakes a personal and artistic gesture of return – to herself, to the past, to the men who inhabited it.
The project functions as a kind of emotional retrospective, in which the artist traces the threads of her feelings – attraction, idealization, shame, anger, sadness, ecstasy – towards figures from reality and fantasy, mostly male. It is an intimate but sharply ironic archive of her experiences as a woman and an artist, placed at the heart of fandom – this deeply feminine, often devalued, but also powerful form of identification and projection.
Having crossed the symbolic threshold of 40, Nevena unfolds her artistic language – drawing, sculpture, textiles, speech and music – to map the inner territory where archetypes and personal memories mix like souvenirs: from the father as the first object of adoration and psychological formation, through the fleeting idols of adolescence and adulthood, to the gallery of men and boys she looked up to and fell in love with, who she was disappointed by and who she fantasized about.
The exhibition collects emotional trophies from experienced and untold stories, archives them visually, turning them into an intimate mythology.
FANGIRL is not just an exploration of the desires that the female point of view gives rise to – it is a frank admission of the artistic dependence on these desires, on fixation, on longing.
Something between a teenager’s diary and a mature artistic confession. Nevena allows herself to be both serious and self-ironic, vulnerable and controlling, a fan and an author – and it is precisely in this tension that her artistic maturity is revealed.
Nevena Ekimova is a Bulgarian artist, currently based in her hometown of Gabrovo.
She studied contemporary art in Norway and Iceland, and got her BFA at the Valand Art Academy in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Since 2021, Nevena Ekimova has been working at the Museum of Humor and Satire.
Besides participating in exhibitions, she often works with public institutions and creates large-scale interactive projects for children and adults.
Waiting for the EuroWaiting for the Euro
Location: 3th floor lobby
Starting today, December 10, the Museum of Humor and Satire presents a mini-exhibition of cartoons in which currency is not just money, but a promise of adventures – economic, political and emotional.
What do we know about the introduction of the euro?
Probably as much as we know about the future: few facts, many wishes and a pinch of fear of the unknown.
Will we manage? Will the price of doner kebab increase? Will we become poorer or simply richer in subjects for jokes?
Cartoonists have had an answer for a long time – in their world, the euro is a hero with character, sometimes with a sense of humor, sometimes with a slightly arrogant expression, but always with good intentions.
If we ask economists, the benefits are like in a fairy tale: fewer risks, more stability, easier trade, more efficient markets and a chance to compete with the big players in the world economy without having to worry about exchange rates.
If we ask the artists, the benefits are even clearer: the bigger the currency, the bigger the palette for humor.
This mini-exhibition walks through all of this – the facts, the fears, the hopes and the sheer pleasure of looking at the economy with a smile.
The Eurozone may be a serious club, but the cartoon reminds us that the best way to enter it is with a sense of humor.
The exhibition features cartoons by:
Alla and Chavdar Georgievi, Bulgaria
Wolfgang Schlegel, Germany
Ivan Kutuzov, Bulgaria
Iliyan Savkov, Bulgaria
Manuel Serrano, Spain
Svetlin Stefanov, Bulgaria
Stoyan Dechev, Bulgaria (the cartoon used as the photo for this article)
Florian Doru Crihana, Romania
Chavdar Nikolov, Bulgaria
Kalin Nikolov. Graphics and Drawings with Unwritten ContentKalin Nikolov. Graphics and Drawings with Unwritten Content
An artist and art critic from the street at 70
Floor 4, Hall 6
“This exhibition is a return to two of the sources of my (poor, in my opinion) imagination (but the world is rich and its content lurks everywhere).
The first are the pictures seen back in the late 1950s and still viewed with interest through a now retro bakelite diascope from the last century. It is preserved in our country in its original box and even with the instructions – “Model E”, a beautiful rarity once, before our television. These pictures were arranged in slide drums with the seven wonders of the world, the wedding of the Queen of England, parrots, Hollywood shows, the ascent of Vesuvius. The last one especially always reminded me of the final stop of tram five (the final stop of the line with the final traverse) and the start up Vitosha with the expectation that we would someday come across the terrible crater.
The second moment is my graphics for the 1970 film “Catch 22” based on the famous novel by Joseph Heller, skillfully adapted to the writer’s black humor. The genre of my cartoon (one of the things I have done in print – both as independent graphics and drawings) is mainly of the “black humor” type: this amuses me even more since I generally don’t understand anything about art, but in my field this is rarely of urgent need to anyone.
To all this I add a few satirical comics, as well as two satirical drawings from different times – my host is a museum of all genres in the funny and the sharp, I would not like to overlook that fact…
There is also a long drawing that slowly grows from exhibition to exhibition, perhaps until it itself becomes one. Its theme is reality, people and destinies – important to us, wherever they came from or will come to us…”
Kalin Nikolov
Kalin Nikolov was born in 1956 in Sofia.
He graduated from the Art High School and the Nikolay Pavlovich Institute of Fine Arts, majoring in Graphics and Graphic Technologies under Prof. Dr. Evtim Tomov.
He studied and worked with the artist Boris Dimovski.
He is currently a curator at the Graphic Department of the National Gallery, Sofia.
He has had solo exhibitions in Sofia, Gabrovo, Veliko Tarnovo, Hamburg, Athens, Budapest, Skopje, Ohrid, Dimitrovgrad and other cities.
He was an artist in newspapers such as “Vecherni noviny”, “Reporter 7”, “La Strаda” and the magazines “FEP”, “Terra Fantasia”, “Usuri”.
He is the author of books, monographs and research studies on Bulgarian and world fine arts.
Nikolov is a researcher of forgotten pages of Bulgarian cultural history – the Union of South Slavic Artists “Lada” (1904-1906), the Ukrainian sculptor Mykhailo Parashchuk and repressed Bulgarian artists.
All That Variété – an exhibition dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Experimental Satirical Variety Theater – GabrovoAll That Variété – an exhibition dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Experimental Satirical Variety Theater – Gabrovo
The Museum of Humor and Satire presents All That Variété – an exhibition based on the online archive dedicated to the Experimental Satirical Variety Theater in Gabrovo.
The Variety Theater in Gabrovo is an emblematic institution that existed in the period 1985 – 1999 under one roof with the Museum of Humor and Satire. This year marks 40 years since its opening.
Gabrovo residents fondly remember the cozy evenings spent in the characteristic bar atmosphere among talented actors, glamorous costumes, dances and music. Since 2021, the archive has been publicly available online, allowing the audience to follow the history of the theater in detail.
This exhibition presents selected moments from the legendary history of the Variété, as everyone called it.
The audience will find information about some of the plays performed and meet again with the main characters in this beautiful and somewhat sad tale. Many of these artists – now established actors, directors, choreographers and musicians – began their careers in Gabrovo. The exhibition includes video interviews with some of them, as well as excerpts from performances.
The exhibition can be viewed in halls 6 and 7 on the fourth floor of the Museum of Humor and Satire.
The digital archive is available at http://variete.humorhouse.bg/
The Museum of Humor and Satire would like to express its sincere gratitude to the State Archives – Gabrovo and the Aprilov – Palauzov Regional Library for their assistance in collecting archival materials.
The digital archive project was implemented with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture.
Among the artistic directors of the theater are eminent personalities such as Nikolay Nikolaev, Vili Tsankov, Sotir Maynolovski and Nikolay Georgiev. Denitsa Shopova, Nikolay Kipchev, Nona Yotova, Katsi Vaptsarov, Pepa Popzlateva, Teo Elmazov made their acting debut on the famous revolving stage. From the younger generation of artists who played in the Variety Theater are Orlin Pavlov, Yoana Zaharieva and Stefan A. Shterev, and stars such as VG Trik, Nikola Anastasov, Kamelia Todorova, Stefan Mavrodiev and many others have come touring.
THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFETHE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE
Stefan Fartunov Hall
Period: August 15, 2025 – January 10, 2026
The exhibition The Bright Side of Life brings together works from the Museum’s art collection and guest canvases by a total of 30 Bulgarian artists, who are meeting for the first time in a specially prepared exhibition. The works presented are constructed through naive expression – one of the most immediate and exciting artistic styles of our time.
For some of the authors, naivety is a main line in their work, for others – a short period, for others – a thread that appears episodically. What connects them is serenity – one of the distinctive features of this style. They almost always choose to see the glass half full.
Naive art entered the world art scene at the beginning of the 20th century – with the jungles of Le Douanier Rousseau and the Artists of the Sacred Heart group in France, with the naive poetry of Niko Pirosmani in Georgia and, a little later, with the canvases of Grandma Moses in the USA. These early paintings were the work of unschooled authors, distinguished by a lacking or distorted perspective, as well as by bright, raw colors, like windows to an instinctive world.
Like any artistic movement, naive art has no strict boundaries or objective criteria for recognition. Nowadays, many of the artists using naive expression have an artistic education and the creation of art is their conscious choice and vocation, and not an intuitive need, as with the first naive artists.
And what does art naive look like today? For us, these are the works that make us smile, sometimes because of the deliberate or completely spontaneous childish ease, sometimes because of the wink hidden in the story, or simply because of the positive mood that flows from the canvases. These are paintings free from academic canons, with a direct expression of feelings, moods, dreams – a flight to a better world, where everything is light, airy, liberated.
May the smiles that this exhibition awakens stay with you for a long time – as a sunny reminder of the bright side of life.
The exhibition features:
Angel Vasilev, Gancho Karabadzhakov, Georgi Georgiev, Georgi Yordanov, Georgi Panov, Grigor Nechev, Daria Vasilianska, Elisaveta Angelova, Emanuela Bayrakova-Popgencheva, Zdravko Yonchev, Irina Hristova, Kalina Atanasova, Keazim Isinov, Kiril Bozhkilov, Kosta Forev, Lika Yanko, Lyubov Toteva, Lyubomir Minkovski, Lyudmil Mladenov, Mariela Dimitrova – Mara, Nikolay Angelov – Gary, Nikolay Stoev, Radi Nedelchev, Rosen Rashev – Roshpaka, Rumen Gasharav, Stayo Garnoev, Stoyan Bozhkilov, Suleiman Seferov, Todor Pavlov, Hristo Stoychev.
Research and preparation of the exhibition:
Curator: Daniela Osikovska
Fine Art Department, Museum of Humor and Satire
Translation: Nevena Ekimova
Graphic design: Anton Ivanov, Studio Mozaika
Printing of exhibition graphics: Visart
THE FOURTH NATIONAL EXHIBITION OF BULGARIAN COMICS IS A GUEST AT THE MUSEUM OF HUMOR AND SATIRETHE FOURTH NATIONAL EXHIBITION OF BULGARIAN COMICS IS A GUEST AT THE MUSEUM OF HUMOR AND SATIRE
The Museum of Humor and Satire, the Comics section of the Union of Bulgarian Artists and the Project Daga Association
invite you on April 1st at 6:00 PM in the Stefan Fartunov hall
to the opening of the Fourth National Exhibition of Bulgarian Comics.
On our special day, at 4:00 PM, come to our Creative Comics Workshop with artists Petar Stanimirov, Rumen Chaushev, Ivan Berov and writer-screenwriter Marin Troshanov. We will draw together and discuss the process of creating illustrated stories – from the first word to the last stroke.
The exhibition is dedicated to historical comics and includes 148 panels with works by 100 Bulgarian authors – from the pioneers of the genre from the mid-1940s such as Alexander Denkov, Vadim Lazarkevich and Lyuben Zidarov to contemporary artists.
You will see works created for popular publications such as the magazines Daga (Rainbow) and Wonderful World, the newspaper Stories in Pictures with favorite authors such as Venelin Varbanov, Evgeniy Yordanov, Petar Stanimirov and Stoyan Shindarov.
Many examples from the years of transition are also presented – the illustrated adventures of Ivaylo Ivanchev in the Fyut magazine, the publications of David Salaria with drawings by Penko Gelev, historical comics about kings and voivodes by artists such as Alexander Vachkov and Veselin Chakarov. The exhibition also includes numerous works after 2000, created during the period of renewed interest in the genre.
During the exhibition, you can also watch the documentary Daga – Stories in Pictures, produced by Four Hands Studio in 2018. The film follows the history of the iconic Daga magazine and introduces us to many of the artists who created comics for it. Started in 1979, the magazine existed until 1992 with a total of 42 issues and a circulation reaching 300,000 copies. Daga is a unique publication for the entire former socialist bloc, and some of its characters live on in the memories of readers to this day.
Director: Maria Nikolova
Producers: Sotir Gelev, Penko Gelev
Gekkon Animation Studio, Four Hands Studio
WORLDS. IVAN HRISTOV – GROGAWORLDS. IVAN HRISTOV – GROGA
Opening: February 27 (Thursday), 5:30 p.m.
Floor 4, Museum of Humor and Satire
The exhibition will remain until July 31, 2025.
The Museum of Humor and Satire presents “Worlds” – a large-scale retrospective exhibition of the beloved Gabrovo painter Ivan Hristov – Groga (1942 – 2024). Located on the entire fourth floor, the exhibition includes over 100 works and traces various stages in his professional development.
The exhibition is part of the celebrations marking 165 years since Gabrovo was declared a city.
The work of Ivan Hristov – Groga is a true revelation in the world of art. In a photorealistic style and with poetic sensitivity, he saturates his pictorial worlds with unique depth and significance.
Nature is his favorite subject. The artist depicts it not just as a background, but as a living organism. Particularly impressive are his winter landscapes, filled with cool tones and ethereality, evoking deep emotions and reflections on the transience and fragility of life.
Groga creates “portraits” of birds, with a refined sensitivity to their beauty.
His painting is not only a means of aesthetic revelation, but also a public position and a warning about human activities that destroy nature.
The exhibition features paintings from the collections of the Hristov family, the Museum of Humor and Satire, Hristo Tsokev Art Gallery – Gabrovo, Aspect Gallery – Plovdiv, Djurkovi Gallery – Plovdiv, Vidima Gallery – Sevlievo, Assen and Iliya Peykovi Art Gallery – Sevlievo, the Specialized Museum of Woodcarving and Iconography Art – Tryavna, Otets Paisii 1928 Art Gallery in the village of Dumnitsi, and private individuals.
The exhibition includes a screening of 3 documentaries, which provide the audience with the opportunity to get to know the artist’s personality.
Ivan Hristov – Groga was born in the Gabrovo village of Dumnitsi into a family with rich traditions in stonemasonry. An alumnus of the Aprilov High School, in 1969 he graduated from the University of Veliko Tarnovo, majoring in Poster Art.
For over a quarter of a century, Groga devoted himself to teaching at the Secondary Art School in Tryavna, inspiring generations of young artists.
Despite his specialization in posters, he remained faithful to his “old love” – painting, turning it into his main means of expression.
Groga’s creative legacy includes dozens of solo exhibitions and successful appearances in prestigious forums.
He is an active and highly appreciated participant in 14 editions of the Gabrovo Biennial of Humor and Satire in Art, with distinctions in 1999 – third prize for painting, in 2005 – the special prize for painting of the Ministry of Culture.
In 2005, 2006 and 2013, the artist won the Hristo Tsokev Аward of the Municipality of Gabrovo.
In 2014, he was awarded the Honorary Badge of Gabrovo for his overall contribution to the town’s cultural life.
STOYAN VENEV. 120 YEARS SINCE THE ARTIST’S BIRTHSTOYAN VENEV. 120 YEARS SINCE THE ARTIST’S BIRTH
20 December 2024 – 30 June 2025
Opening: December 20 (Friday), 18:00
” … Stoyan Venev (true to his own jovial, cheeky and mocking nature) ridiculed the vices of his time or else amused himself with the comical pitfalls of his “heroes”, even when from a purely sociological point of view, the ‘funny’ had deep dramatic dimensions.”
Dimitar Avramov
In 2024, 120 years have passed since the birth of Stoyan Venev – one of our most recognizable artists, a significant figure in Bulgarian art in the last century.
In an attempt to offer a modern look at the artist and, in a way, founding father of Bulgarian art, an exhibition was curated in hall 5 of the Museum of Humor and Satire, presenting 151 of his paintings, cartoons, satirical drawings, sketches and watercolors.
The exhibition includes a screening of 4 documentaries, which provide an opportunity for the audience to get in touch with the artist’s personality.
The story of Stoyan Venev’s work and personality is further developed with literature, catalogs and albums in the Museum Library.
The exhibition is realized with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture and is a joint project between the Museum of Humor and Satire – Gabrovo, Art Gallery “Vladimir Dimitrov – Master” – Kyustendil and partner collectors.
Under the influence of the characteristic works of Stoyan Venev, generations of Bulgarians from their earliest childhood build their ideas and attitude towards the surrounding world, social changes in society, historical processes and events. His name is widely known even today. Bulgarians over middle age recognize the works of the Kyustendil artist. His colorful canvases, cartoons and drawings have long been in galleries and private collections and today are defined with the word “classic”.
Going through his life with as much dynamism as in his art, Venev has always been the object of interest from critics, journalists, colleagues and the general public – an innovator, with a bright sensibility and a single-minded, carefree creativity. In his works, the expressive color, the intimate realism, the insertion of symbolic and allegorical signs, and the social element are impressive.
Stoyan Venev developed as an artist with a keen sense of social tensions and expressed his views through a specific style. He has been widely popular since his youth, a significant exponent of the proletarian line in art between the two world wars, the last of the great representatives of the Rodno Izkustvo (Native Art) movement.
For two decades after the September 9 coup, the artist worked for the “new socialist culture” and for “representational engaged painting”.
In the 1960s, this extremely wayward artist happily returned to his characteristic previous style – to pre-war modernism, the subjective, conditional and primitive, breaking the imposed restrictions – to be truthful and realistic in the generally accepted and expected sense, with predetermined ideologically substantive and style-plastic frames.
Much of his subjects reflect his understanding of criticism as a function of art and his dozens of satirical drawings simultaneously glorify and ridicule, a peculiar mixture between the heroic and the grotesque – “… the same primitive peasants – moustached, wide-eyed, ugly and funny; still the same village festivities and funny anecdotes…” (D. Avramov).
The exhibition includes works by:
Museum of Humor and Satire – Gabrovo, Art Gallery “Vladimir Dimitrov – the Master” – Kyustendil, the private collections of Dr. Rumen Manov and Mr. Ivo Dimitrov.
Exhibition team:
Margarita Dorovska, Valentin Gospodinov, Dimka Koleva – curators
Svetlana Mihaylova – public relations
Eng. Petyo Yordanov – technical assurance
“Mozaika” studio – graphic design
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*quote from the article “Stoyan Venev – an original artist of the primitive Bulgarian village” by Dimitar Avramov in kultura.bg from 21.09.2014
The exhibition can be viewed in the virtual tour, which provides freedom of movement and interaction with the exhibition through interactive markers added to the works in it.
Exhibition Openings Photos
How Was Life At Janachkovi’s – A Guest Exhibition From The Czech Cultural Center SofiaHow Was Life At Janachkovi’s – A Guest Exhibition From The Czech Cultural Center Sofia
The project “How life was at Janachkovi” was prepared based on the illustrations of Vendula Halankova.
The opening of the exhibition was on November 5 at 17:30 at the Museum of Humor and Satire.
The project is implemented by the Czech Cultural Center in Sofia within the framework of the Year of Czech Music program and with the support of the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Sofia, Czechoslovak Club “TG Masaryk” in Bulgaria, the Czech Theater Institute, Sound Czech.
The exhibition presents illustrations to the two books from the legacy of Marie Stejskalova, called Marji, a longtime housekeeper in the family of the composer Leoš Janáček.
Leos Janáček (1854–1928) is the world’s most performed Czech opera composer.
Vendula Halankova (*1981) graduated from the Environmental Studio of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Brno.
Since 2017, he has been a collaborator of the Tourist Information Center BRNO (TIC BRNO) in the field of non-traditional propaganda of the personality of Leoš Janacek, within which a series of paper collages and illustrations of the books “Marji’s Cookbook” and “Marji’s Memoirs” were created.
All projects prepared by the Tourist Information Center BRNO (TIC BRNO) for Leos Janacek can be viewed here: https://www.leosjanacek.eu/en/