Charta Gallery is pleased to present the pop-up exhibition “Unseen” by Albena Baeva, available for just a few days from March 21 to 25, 2025, between 3:00 PM and 7:00 PM.
Unseen mythical creatures have inhabited the human imagination since the dawn of civilization. They carry information, values, and guides through the centuries, woven into stories that build the cultural layers of various civilizations. Artist Albena Baeva synthesizes new mythical creatures that speak about the challenges of contemporary technological culture, populate new imaginary worlds, and become the core of new stories.
“Unseen” is a pop-up exhibition by Albena Baeva, showcasing works previously unseen in Sofia from her solo exhibitions in Istanbul and Berlin. The opening on March 21 at 6:00 PM will also feature the Sofia premiere of the short video “World Dictator,” a collaboration between Albena Baeva, choreographer Korhan Basaran, musician Ivan Shopov, and director Osman Nuri Iyem.
The striking 3D-printed sculpture “The Wasp” is the latest addition to Baeva’s sculptures, which include “The Bitch,” “The Sheep,” “The Snake,” “The Goose,” and “The Pig” — well-known pieces on the Sofia art scene. These sculptures subvert the meaning of deeply rooted cultural insults, specifically targeting women. “The Wasp” is a combination of a model of a Maori female sculpture and a wasp. Like a modern Marvel hero, she takes on the role of a warrior woman-protector, encapsulating the “fira” of our technology into delicate transparent spheres (“Fira” I, “Fira” II, and “Fira” III). “The Wasp” and “World Dictator” are part of Baeva’s latest solo exhibition, curated by Firat Arapoglu, shown in Istanbul in 2024.
Random Animal Seeds is a series of oil portraits exploring the hallucinations of an artificial intelligence, machine-trained by Baeva. Through these hallucinations, the AI generates magnetic portraits of new hybrid fictional biological species, which the artist transforms into oil paintings. The portraits were first shown in a solo exhibition in Berlin, curated by Nathalie Hoyos and Rainald Schumacher, in 2021.
Albena Baeva is one of Bulgaria’s leading artists working with new technologies. Her works are part of the collections of Johann König, Art Collection Telekom, Jess Ross, the Vladimir Iliev Collection, and the Sofia City Art Gallery.
She works with artificial intelligence (AI), electronics, creative programming, and augmented reality, advancing a feminist discourse in technological art and examining AI’s impact on climate change. As the co-founder of Bulgaria’s only gallery for digital art — Gallery Gallery — and its accompanying AR sculpture park “Ploshtadka,” she presents and supports other artists in developing their experimental projects. Her works have been showcased at international festivals, galleries, and museums across Europe, Turkey, and the USA.