Konstantin Zlatev,
Born in 1969 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria to two academics of Bulgarian literature, Konstantin Zlatev was deeply immersed as a child in books, constant conversations about classical and contemporary literature. With the support of his writer and poet father, Konstantin was exposed to many of the world's great galleries in Europe. The Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis and German painter Caspar David Friedrich were major influences in his youth feeding his romantic nihilism and hyperbolization of the historical past. His own Greek heritage related his arrogant adolescent mind to to the world of Homer.
In 1984 Konstantin began his education at National Art School in Plovdiv, Bulgaria with emphasis on traditional realistic drawings as well on graphic design, printmaking and sculpture. 1995, Konstantin earned his MFA in Sculpture from St. Cyril and St. Methodius University in Bulgaria.
He executed his first major public art projects at the Mother of God Chapel in Chepelare, Bulgaria in 1992 and at the St. Marina Monastery in Russe, Bulgaria in 1995.
He executed his first major public art projects at the Mother of God Chapel in Chepelare, Bulgaria in 1992 and at the St. Marina Monastery in Russe, Bulgaria in 1995.
With the fall of the communist regime and drastic change in the society fabric and economics, Konstantin’s interests were fueled by philosophical bases of the Christian religion as they served as highly structured philosophical constructions spanning between the world of the ancient Greek philosophers and the modern world. His interest was in looking for a base for new minimalism, eternal, self-evident, unrelated to political ideologies and current events.
Several trips to throughout Greece, Macedonia, and Egypt were the foundation of his education on the principles of Byzantine art. After receiving his MFA in 1995, he spent next 2 years merging his “Orthodox minimalism” with American minimalist art from 60’s and 70’s.
Several trips to throughout Greece, Macedonia, and Egypt were the foundation of his education on the principles of Byzantine art. After receiving his MFA in 1995, he spent next 2 years merging his “Orthodox minimalism” with American minimalist art from 60’s and 70’s.
In 1997 he moved to USA. Here the local insistence of a story and verbal art explanation led to change in his sculptures from austere minimalist primordial forms into fragile plaster structures defying the laws of gravity and being on the verge of collapse.
In 1998, Konstantin entered the tech landscape by exploring digital media at California State University. As a result, he was hired in San Francisco Bay Area as a producer where he created user interfaces, flash animations, graphic design materials, video production and web design.
In 2003, an influential studio visit with curator Renny Pritikin for consideration for Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’s “Bay Area Now” exhibition motivated Konstantin to explore digital media as an art form.
In 2003, an influential studio visit with curator Renny Pritikin for consideration for Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’s “Bay Area Now” exhibition motivated Konstantin to explore digital media as an art form.
Intrigued by promises of interdisciplinary approached to design problems in architecture and introductions to the latest ideas and technology, he completed the MArch program at California College of the Arts where he studied with Bruce Tomb and Neal Schwartz. His thesis project
“The Nonlinear Museum” opened new areas of interest - science of networks, chaos theory, randomness and self-organization, biological neural networks, fuzzy logic and ultimately leading Konstantin into his current body of work merging elements of Algorithmic art, computational design and parametric architecture.
Konstantin has worked as architectural designer in San Francisco for Studios Architecture and currently works for The City of San Francisco, Department of Public Work, Bureau of Architecture. While he has exhibited in Bulgaria and Italy, most recently Konstantin has exhibited at Electric Works, Manresa Gallery and Dog Patch Café and Gallery amongst others. Konstantin is married with two sons and lives and maintains his studio practice in San Francisco, CA.