Pontone Gallery is hosting a new exhibition of works by Bulgarian artist, Rado Kirov, who brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the art of metal fabrication. Stainless steel sheets are welded and shaped to make free-standing sculptures and wall-mounted reliefs which are sited indoors and out.
Using dynamic processes of hammering, heating and polishing, Kirov transforms the hard and rectilinear metal into sleek, smooth and streamlined forms, whose rippling planes and surfaces suggest the undulating wave forms of the natural world.
BALANCING CUBES, 2023
The reflective, mirror finish of these sculptures captures and transmits a fractured image of their surroundings and those that approach them. The pieces integrate themselves into an environment, whether it be an architectural interior, urban setting or natural landscape. At the same time, they assert their glistening, manufactured materiality. It is impossible to ignore such highly wrought testaments to human ingenuity.
MELTING STRIP, 2023
Kirov’s ‘metal chasing’ – a technical term which describes the embossing or shaping process – becomes a literal ‘chasing’, that is, a hunting of, in this case, sinuous contour and sensuous pattern. He seeks and finds nature’s models: a flowing tide, the meandering line of landscape, the regular textures of a fruit or seed. These elements are then translated and expressed in his subtle manipulations of the metal and are subsequently refined and enhanced by polishing.
THE CONNOISSEURS, 2018
This body of work is born of Kirov’s interaction with hard-won and painstaking technique. He is alert to the sophisticated aesthetic possibilities of his medium and by both pushing at its methodological limits and at the same time drawing on hand-crafted and time-served traditions can conjure up the almost alchemical transfiguration of base metal into unique and remarkable sculptural object.
Mercurial Echoes runs to 10 February 2024.
All images courtesy Pontone Gallery and the artist.
