For this edition, Preslav Kostov answered PROJETS Media’s questions, sharing personal recommendations, from exhibitions and pubs to hidden corners of London.
What’s your connection to the city?
I moved to London as a child from a city in Bulgaria to join my mother, who had emigrated several years earlier. I’ve spent most of the last 20 years in different neighbourhoods here, and I treasure the diversity of cultures and lifestyles the city has let me experience.
At which bookstore would you buy a book?
Having moved around a lot, I don’t like to hoard possessions, so the only books I buy physically are on artists, for the colour plates. I usually find them by sifting through second-hand listings online. I’m still hunting for the Arshile Gorky catalogue raisonné at a price below a house deposit!
A good park or other place to read and relax?
I don’t feel much urge to relax. When my days go smoothly they’re routine: studio by mid-morning, home late in the evening, every day but Sunday. For most people attempting this artist’s life right now, spending your days this way is a privilege. Most juggle precarious, thankless jobs to fund their practice. Having done the same, I feel a responsibility to work.
The most vibrant place to have a drink and mingle with the art scene?
There isn’t really an epicentre. It tends to be whichever pub is convenient to an opening. The Chequers Tavern comes up often, but with personal friends I’m usually at the Wenlock Arms or one of the other small pubs around north-east London.
Which exhibition do you recommend seeing in London right now?
Vijay Masharani’s “Haymakers” at Arcadia Missa is the best show I’ve seen in a while. The works collapse personal and collective history into intimate drawings. Go see!
What’s your favourite architectural marvel in the city?
Not so much a structure as an absence. I get a real tickle from the historical rules and regulations that have survived into modernity and still shape the city. The one that brings me the most joy is the New River path, which follows a 17th-century aqueduct built to bring fresh water into London. It’s now a park!
A design shop to buy souvenirs?
Skip the design shops and head to the charity shops in the posh parts of the city. Wealthy locals offload their possessions there, and volunteers sort them for resale. Real treasures get overlooked, and if you’re fashion-conscious there’s that angle too.
Where would you take a first-time visitor for lunch in London?
The cheap Chinese restaurants just behind Leicester Square. The longer the menu, the better the food!
Where would you take someone for an art-focused date?
I recently saw the Raphael show at the Met in New York, and what struck me was how many of the works were lent by public collections around London. So much of world history is gathered in this city’s museums that it would be a crime not to see it.
Let’s think bigger: if you wanted to get out of the city, where would you go?
Leaving the city is my chance to enjoy nature and disconnect from professional and social pressures. My wife and I usually visit her family near the water on the US east coast. I avoid paying for roaming, so no one can reach me for the whole trip. Otherwise, I love jumping on a train to Wales. My favourite spot is the Barmouth Estuary, home to the longest operational wooden viaduct, where Snowdonia meets the coast and a river estuary. You get water, hiking and countryside pubs all in one.
