The Julian Schnabel Foundation and Villa Magdalena gallery are thrilled to announce Milko Pavlov, the Bulgarian-born, Berlin-based painter’s first solo exhibition in the United States. Opening on April 15, the show will be on view through May 14 at Palazzo Chupi.

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Located at 360 West 11th street in downtown Manhattan, the Foundation is dedicated to advancing Julian Schnabel’s vision as an artist, filmmaker, sculptor, and lifelong champion of the arts. Julian’s commitment to culture runs deep, expressed not only through his own painting, but through film, literature, education, and decades of supporting fellow artists across every discipline and generation. The Foundation exists as an extension of that belief: that art is essential, that artists must be supported, and that culture enriches every community it touches.

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This exhibition is part of the programming the Julian Schnabel Foundation will be implementing in the coming months at Palazzo Chupi, dedicated to artists whose work deserves greater visibility and a wider conversation. This programming began last year prior to the Foundation’s formal establishment with Michael Alexander Campbell’s (b. 1999, Cambridge, UK) solo show Sovereign Lapse, a testament to Julian’s enduring practice of opening doors for artists he believes in. That spirit continues with Milko Pavlov, as the Foundation fulfills its mission to create space for bold, necessary voices and to bring transformative art experiences to new audiences in New York City.

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“After meeting Milko at my opening in Berlin at Max Hetzler’s gallery, I went to his studio and was so taken by his paintings that I accquired a group of them that day” - Julian Schnabel

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“Through his naturalistic yet irreal abstract compositions Milko Pavlov is constructing a vision filled with spectacle and fleeting sights. The light’s reflection on a cliff, the remnants of a prehistoric man consumed by the earth, an ethereal giant entering a valley; frozen mountains. The undefined character of these pictures feel like records of places, where the presence of environments are in the process of forming as we discover them.” - Cy Schnabel

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Milko Pavlov (b. 1956, Aytos, Bulgaria) lives and works in Berlin, Germany and Sofia, Bulgaria. His work has been presented in numerous exhibitions internationally, including: the Museum of Contemporary Art Sofia Arsenal (2025, Sofia/Bulgaria), Pace Gallery (2024, Seoul/Korea), Villa Magdalena (2022, San Sebastian/Spain), St. Peter and Paul Church (2019 and 2021, Ratingen/Germany), the St. Matthäus Foundation (2020, Berlin/Germany), the National Art Gallery (2008, Sofia/Bulgaria), City Art Gallery Bremen (2007, Bremen/Germany), Sofia City Art Gallery (2005, Sofia/Bulgaria), Dodrechts Museum (1999, Dodrecht/Netherlands), Tama Art University (1997, Tokyo/Japan), Kerava Art Museum (1997, Kerava/Finland) and the Leopold- Hoesch-Museum Düren (1994, Düren/Germany).