Homes, 2014
Sepia, black and white ink and wash on paper
ΕΜΣΤ Collection
Donated by the artist, 2024
Nedko Solakov’s Homes is a series of twelve drawings that combines image and text to explore the complexities of family, belonging, and everyday life. Known for his sharp-witted, narrative-driven practice, Solakov uses humour, irony, and wordplay to question societal norms and the contradictions embedded within them. In Homes, he turns to the often idealised notion of the family, exposing its fragilities and absurdities through a sequence of intimate, fictional scenes. Text and image function as a single unit, unfolding stories directly on the page. With a visual language that appears simple yet reveals conceptual depth, Solakov invites viewers into a space where personal reflection meets social critique, balancing playfulness with subtle, incisive commentary on human relationships.
Homes reflects Solakov’s broader interest in storytelling as both method and medium. Across his practice—spanning drawing, painting, installation, and performance—language plays a central role, not as explanation but as an integral visual element. As the artist notes, text and image are conceived together, forming inseparable narrative units. This process lends the works an immediacy and openness, where meaning remains fluid and layered. The twelve drawings unfold as a loose narrative sequence, using humour and gentle sarcasm to probe the contradictions of everyday experience. Rather than presenting fixed interpretations, Solakov constructs situations that oscillate between the personal and the universal, the intimate and the absurd. His seemingly naïve visual style conceals a complex engagement with the multiplicity of perspectives that shape the human experience. Through this interplay of text and image, Homes becomes both a reflection on family structures and a broader meditation on the ways we construct, inhabit, and question the idea of “home.”
Nedko Solakov was born in Cherven Bryag, Bulgaria, in 1957. He lives and works in Sofia, Bulgaria.
