Boyko Mitkov-Boyo was born in Studena in 1954. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia, receiving the academic education that he drew on for the rest of his career.
As an artist, Mitkov-Boyo has remained faithful to humanity, his corpus embodying an emotional resistance despite periods of political or economic hardship. This, however, does not mean his corpus is devoid of these latter subjects. Rather, through sculpture, he humanises many of the conflicts often addressed via numbers and statistics, representing the fate of the individual as well as the group.
To engage the viewer in this sensitive mission, the sculptor offers an entrance point into the forms he sculpts by splitting them or opening them up according to naturally occurring lines and breaks. Through these carefully crafted windows, one can inhabit the pieces, take on their form and create a haptic bond with the moulded figures.
Mitkov-Boyo has explored various human or human-adjacent themes throughout the years. In 2015, Mitkov-Boyo approached spirituality as a means to communicate love, creating pieces in relation to the Last Supper, such as Supper and The preserved message. As the sculptor himself put it: ‘In the last supper I see not only the sacral aspect, but also that of the community, of human involvement’.
The artist’s work has been exhibited at: the Herzog Gallery in Büren zum Hof, the Messina Gallery in Büren an der Aare, the Galerie am Salzgries in Vienna, the Hadwiger Gallery in Vienna, the Bulgarian Cultural Centre in Berlin, the Autumn Salon in Paris, the international biennial of drawing and graphic arts in Györ, Hungary, the international contemporary sculpture competition at the Hakone open-air museum in Japan, the Kunstmesse Art exhibition in Basel and EuropArt in Geneva.
Mitkov-Boyo lives and works between Sofia and Vienna.
