BEMIDJI—Walking into the Talley Gallery is an escape from reality.

The gallery is located off one of the main hallways in Bridgeman Hall on the BSU campus. The room is surrounded by white walls now filled with illustrations by Stefan Markov, considered Bulgaria’s premier contemporary artist when he died at age 60 in 2000. The color and beauty of each different illustration invites one to enjoy the calming space and take in the art.

“Everytime I come in here, I feel like uplifted,” said Natalia Himmirska, associate professor of technology, art, and design at BSU. Himmirska and Stefan Markov belonged to the same artist union.

“It’s definitely, for me, a tribute to him, absolutely because my love to him as colleague and as an artist. I always look up at him because to me he is a highly professional imaginative free spirit person with great skills. It’s a constant source of inspiration and happiness, exultation,” she said.

The Markov exhibit opened Feb. 18 in the Talley Gallery and will be on display through March 11.

Markov was born in 1940 in Burgas on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria. He graduated in 1967 from the Fine Arts Academy in Sofia with a major in graphic art. Over his lifetime, he had received several international awards including the “Boris Angelushev” award for illustration by the Union of Bulgarian Artists in 1986.

Himmirska, who has helped to bring work from other international artists to BSU, uses some of Markov’s works to teach her students.

“He’s using space, he using line, his understanding of the variety of the principles, I teach the design principles to my students,” she said.

“I say all the time that lines should be thin and thick, sharp and fuzzy. As a concept, it’s very hard for them to understand, and you look at the work like this and you understand what makes it beautiful.”

And having the work of an international reknown artist in Bemidji can be a benefit to all.

“Particularly here, we are far away from big cities where you can see a variety of art and can chose something for yourself, so I think the high quality work of Stefan’s is a present to all of us,” Himmirska said.

If you go…

What: Collection of works by illustrator Stefan Markov.

When: Show on display through March 11.

Where: Talley Gallery, Bridgeman Hall room 140 on BSU campus.

The gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Maggi Stivers

(218) 333-9790