Hasta La Ideas

Architect Elia Nedkov paired exposed concrete with clean white displays for the interior of this shoe shop in the historical centre of Sofia, Bulgaria.

Elia Nedkov designed the shop for footwear brand La Scarpa, stripping back layers of paint and wallpaper to expose the shell of the old 1960s building. A raw concrete wall lines one side of the shop while two ageing columns occupy the centre of the space.

“The minimal use of colour and materials of the newly added elements delicately coexist with the raw, old structure of bare walls and concrete,” said Nedkov.

Minimal white L-shaped display shelves are mounted onto the concrete, with lights installed behind them. “They appear detached from the wall to keep the contrast between old and new,” the architect told Dezeen.

A sideboard with a glossy white acrylic surface spans the plasterboard wall opposite. The naked edges and long milled lines of the sideboard reveal the rough chipboard underneath.

A matching reception desk sits against the back wall, hidden behind one of the columns. A mirror is also mounted to this wall, positioned opposite the glass shop door.

The shop is fronted completely in glass and a tree-branch handle has been attached to the door.

“I wanted to put a kind of poetic touch to the raw minimal style, so I changed the common handle on the glass door with a handmade one,” the designer said.

Nedkov also chose to rip out the old low plasterboard ceiling of the shop and paint the raw structure white, along with the floor, to add depth to the space.

Wooden crates were painted in pastel colours and stacked up to create a window display for the shop opening.

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in Bulgarian shoe shop by Elia Nedkov appeared first on Dezeen.

Magnetized paintings expose eerie abstractions

Bulgarian artist Georgi Tushev creates magnetic landscapes, his forms simultaneously recalling nebulous cells and galactic moonscapes to strike a precarious balance between painting and sculptural art. With a body of work that ranges from pixelated paintings of vintage porn stills to portraits of Victorian-style rock stars, Tushev now presents “Ace of Spades“, a collection of new work at the Fitzroy Gallery in SoHo that explores the exotic landscapes of his signature look.

Tushev begins by taping the perimeter of his canvas to create a kind of sealed holding tank into which he pours oil paint with a high concetration of iron before exposing the black soup to a high-powered magnet. After the paint smokes and settles, bizarre formations settle on the canvas. The result is a combination of skillful artistic control and sheer chance, leaving circular fields of monochromatic topography.

For his works on paper, the artist likewise magnetizes watercolor paint, allowing the forces to separate his material into pure blacks, grays and whites. Concentric rings come together to create spectral forms which seem to reveal ghostly portraits, protean nuclei and terrestrial craters within the arrangement of pigment on canvas.

“Ace of Spades is on view at the Fitzroy Gallery through 13 July 2012. See Tushev at work in this video, and find more images from the exhibition in our slideshow

Fitzroy Gallery

77 Mercer Street

New York, NY 10012