Press Release

NEW ORLEANS - Heriard-Cimino Gallery presents RUN, a series of new paintings by Iva Gueorguieva.  The exhibition opening will be held Saturday, August 7th, 2004, from 6 to 9 p.m. The exhibition will be on view from August 7 - 31, 2004. In conjunction with the annual White Linen Night celebration there will be coordinated art openings throughout the Warehouse District, with music, food and drink on Julia Street.  The public is invited. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday, 10:30 until 5:30, Saturday 10 until 5, or by appointment.

Iva Gueorguieva's new paintings are complex compositions incorporating bold and finely detailed imagery combining pure abstract elements with organic and fantastic references.  Within the paintings Gueorguieva evokes the familiar, the vaguely familiar and otherworldly - landscapes, suns, moons, cityscapes, abstract forms, and organic and surreal references of nature.  The viewer's impression is of entering a three dimensional space created by the artist's multiple overlapping imagery and her personal graffiti and calligraphic markings.

In discussing her work, Gueorguieva states "The large-scale works in this show are portraits of places and possible events; of places considered as events, and events as places. Just as a facial expression can be understood as a topography of an emotion, my paintings record the topography of social and physical realities and relationships.  I have entitled this show RUN, because that term aptly encapsulates the human feelings that for me attend the events in the paintings. Not only has the word itself, in graphical form, occupied a central position in a number of my drawings over the past year or two, but its multiple grammatical function as verb, noun, and imperative allows this simple word to convey a complex set of feelings, actions, and thoughts."

Iva Gueorguieva was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, received her B.A. in Philosophy from Goucher College in Baltimore,  and her M.F.A. from Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia.   In 2003 she exhibited in the Louisiana Biennial at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans, LA,  and in the Abstract Painting exhibition at Triple Candie in New York, NY.   Gueorguieva teaches art at Tulane University, New Orleans, LA.  This is her first solo exhibition at Heriard-Cimino Gallery.