STATEMENT
My art is centered on the human experience and the individual's sense of existence. Inspired from various movements and periods throughout art history, my practice is one of compilation, in which fantasy and reality, humor and comment, logic and the absurdity coexist, and they can't be rationalized...Just like the moments when we encounter something we can’t fully explain.
These experiences, which we can only grasp in our imagination, are part of my creative process. To me, art is a 'word'—a form of expression that communicates the idea of "Spirit and Matteria" through shapes, colors, and forms.
BIOGRAPHY
Bulgarian-born Los Angeles-based artist Zlatka Paneva has an MFA from the Academy of Fine Art, Sofia, Bulgaria and studied ceramics at the Carlo Zauli Studio in Faenza, Italy. Paneva is a multidisciplinary artist whose new modes of expression and technical innovation allow her to create art that melts the boundaries between media.
While pursuing her painting career in the US, she began as a fashion illustrator before opening Studio Nine in Los Angeles, where she successfully adapted her art into the design and production of ceramic art, tile and design 1992 - 2004. For over ten years, her products were distributed nationally and internationally through the fine tile and design showrooms Waterworks, Country Floors and Ann Sacks (Kohler Company). Her designs have been installed in private residences, corporate offices and commercial projects.
She expands her creativity with constant experiments, including the combination of traditional skills with the most appropriate technological innovations. Z.Paneva has worked as a sculptor, graphic and jewelry designer, tile conservator and interior designer.
In 2010, with her Rococcola collection, Zlatka Paneva came full circle, back to creating art on paper and canvas, but now her work is inspired by design, color and all the media she has succeeded in over the years. Her print and illustration collection RococcoLA enjoys a worldwide cult following and has been licensed to high-profile companies and publications such as The New York Times, Elle, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Capital/Mexico among others.
Since 2018, Paneva has focused exclusively on her paintings and ceramics, where with her sense of expansive awareness she is able to melt the boundaries between media to exist in her own unique way of expression. She creates concepts that serve as modern mythologies.
Zlatka Paneva’s work can be found in the collections of the National Museum of Art, Bulgaria; the International Museum of Ceramic Art, Italy and in other public and major private collections in the United States, Europe and Asia. She has exhibited and placed her works throughout the United States and internationally. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles