Gallery

Gallery 33 presents “Beyond Contemplation” - an exhibition of paintings by Krasen Kralev. The exhibition will feature 45 oil paintings created in 2026. Gallery 33 is pleased to host Krasen Kralev’s ninth solo exhibition, titled “Beyond Contemplation”. The exhibition will open on 12.08.2026 at 6 p.m. and can be viewed untilSeptember 2.

It will feature 45 oil paintings created in 2026, from the series Seashores, Dancing Trees, Urban Landscapes, Night Landscapes, Temples, Beyond Contemplation, Mediterranean sea.

Krasen Kralev’s paintings transform nature into a symbolic world, where sea, trees, villages and human figures come to life in the rhythm of color and light. His style is a synthesis between decorative expression and modernist abstraction, inscribed in the context of postmodern art. Inspired by nature and the subconscious, the artist creates works that transcend reality and transform it into a living poetry of signs.

Krasen Kralev is already an established name in contemporary Bulgarian art. With each subsequent exhibition, he increasingly manages to charm and surprise the audience with his expressive style, bright colors and ability to transform emotions into painting.

He proved that his appearance in art is not something accidental or temporary, but is the fruit of an incredible talent, passion and thirst for self-improvement and surpassing his own self. This is also evidenced by the words of one of the geniuses in Bulgarian art, namely our world-famous sculptor Vezhdi Rashidov, who is also a close friend of Kralev.

He highly appreciated his talent during the opening of the exhibition "Inspirational 7" - "Landscape beyond the Landscape", which was presented at the "Anel" Museum-Gallery in Sofia on October 15.

“What Krasen does is destiny! His path in painting started along some paths and trails and reached the big road that we see today. Many people start professionally with a charge and stay where they are, while others follow their own path. Krasen Kralev is following his own path and I am very happy for him! I am also happy that his first exhibition was in the Vejdi art gallery. He does not follow the color, he leads the color! I really want to live longer to see how far he has come! He is a different brand, he is following an interesting path, he is developing very interestingly”.

“I am a very emotional person and art gives me the freedom to express my emotions. A luxury that I cannot afford in public life. There I have to be very neat and tidy, and art gives me the opportunity to be myself! In paintings a person cannot lie. What you see is me! I paint what I see, not what I should see, and that makes me happy!”, admits Krasen Kralev himself.

Born in Varna, Kralev is still deeply connected to his hometown, but his creative pursuits take him far beyond the local and familiar, into the realm of universal themes and eternal symbols.

"The most characteristic thing about him is that he really has talent, he has a talent for art and this is seen not only in his paintings, which are harmonious compositions, combining postmodern with expression, with decorative vision, but most of all it is seen in the light, in the color that these works emit. They are like icons, they bring light! Even in the muted range of seascapes, they are saturated with a lot of emotion, with a lot of expression. The texture of his paintings also contributes to this, which is developed purely graphically, with strokes and on it are placed several layers of colors that see through one another and create the impression of stained glass - something that carries and radiates its own light. This is Krasen Kralev! He brings truth to art, he brings an honesty!", shared Plamena Dimitrova-Racheva during the opening of the artist's exhibition at the Anel Museum-Gallery.

Krasen Kralev was born in Varna in 1967. He graduated from the Medical University in his hometown, and later specialized in global marketing and political campaign management at the University of South Carolina (1990) and at the Association of National Advertisers in the USA (1997). A long-time expert in the field of public communications, in 1992 he founded MAG Communications – one of the first advertising agencies in Bulgaria, awarded with prestigious international awards.

After an active professional and public career, Kralev returned to his first passion – painting. He started drawing as a child, but interrupted this practice in the early 1990s. Since 2017, his artistic path has marked a new stage – solo exhibitions in Varna, Sofia and Plovdiv, the first two with a charitable cause.

His style combines decorative expression and modernist abstraction, refracted through the freedom of postmodern thinking.

His painting transforms reality into a symbolic world, where nature and human figures become carriers of memory, emotion and metaphor. Works by Krasen Kralev are owned by prestigious private collections in the country and abroad.

Selected exhibitions:

2017 – 1st solo exhibition, Finesse Gallery – Sofia;

2022 – 2nd solo exhibition, Grafit Gallery – Varna;

2022 – 3rd solo exhibition, Vezhdi Gallery – Sofia;

2022-2023 – 4th solo exhibition, Savov Art Club and Gallery – Plovdiv;

2023 – Participation in the XXII International Biennial of Graphic Arts in Varna;

2023 – 5th solo exhibition, The Residence Exclusive Club – Sofia;

2024 – 6th solo exhibition, Nuance Gallery – Sofia;

2025 – 7th solo exhibition, Anel Museum-Gallery – Sofia;

2025-2026 – 8th solo exhibition, Art Club and Gallery “Savov” – Plovdiv;

2026 – Guest artist in the exhibition of Gallery 33 at the 23rd edition of the Salon of Arts at the National Palace of Culture.

Opening: 12.08.2026 at 6 p.m

Place: Gallery 33, Varna, 2A Gabrovo Street

Period: 12.08.2026 – 02.09.2026

Admission: Free