Preslav Kostov (b. 1998) is a London-based painter whose work engages with the instability of the figure in contemporary image culture. Working through accumulation, erasure, and distortion, his paintings hover between observation and invention, where bodies are partially seen, misremembered, or withheld. Recurring motifs, drawn from genre scenes of leisure or intimacy, serve less as narrative content than as frameworks for tension. In Kostov’s hands, these settings are estranged, rendered porous through a language of painterly interference. Figures become residues of gesture, photographic memory, and perceptual slippage. Across blurred registers and fractured grounds, the work sustains ambiguity as a structural condition—resisting clarity, and instead opening space for affect, distance, and doubt.
Kostov lives and works in London. He is a two-time recipient of The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Award (2021, 2023).
EDUCATION
Royal College of Art (2021 - 2023)
Leeds Arts University (2017 - 2020)
Royal Drawing School (2016 - 2017)