Svetlin Vassilev has published over fifty titles translated into various languages.
He has illustrated the works of Charles Dickens, Ray Bradbury, William Shakespeare, Herman Melville, and classics like Peter Pan, Don Quixote, and The Baron of Munchausen.
At the same time, he has delved into mythology, translating stories into visual narratives. As the artist explains, “Confronting myths means placing the human being at the center of my art.”
Born in 1971 in Ruse, Bulgaria, at the foot of the Balkans, he studied at the School of Fine Arts in Plovdiv (1985-1990) and at the Academy of Fine Arts “N. Pavlovich” in Sofia (1990-1996).
In 2004, he received the Honorary State Prize for Illustration from Greece for his work on Don Quixote, where he has been living since 1997.
Svetlin Vassilev has been described as the literary painter for his illustrations of Romeo and Juliet, Peter Pan, and Moby Dick.
Critics have also recognized a painterly sensibility reminiscent of Art Nouveau, particularly Gustav Klimt (1862 – 1918).
The exhibition highlights the artist’s poetics and his relationship with illustration as an autonomous expressive form. The exhibition features around one hundred original works.
Illustration of Svetlin Vassilev, Il piccolo musicista, Alexandra Mitsiali, Kite edizioni, 2023
