A Downtown condo doubles as a personal museum for Shiloh and Dimiter Todorov, travels abroad and friendships through their thoroughly funky art collection.
Seven years ago, Shiloh and Dimiter Todorov were vacationing in Delray Beach, Florida, when they came across the independent Magnus and Gordon Gallery. They loved the work of artist Magnus Sebastian so much that they tracked him down in person, bought five pieces directly from him and had them shipped to Columbus.
Sebastian uses vintage mannequins in most of his work “as they tend to be an idealized expression of the human form,” he explains on his website. He fills them with innards made of the “cast off pieces of technology that we take for granted and discard every day.” In doing so, Sebastian tries “to show that we are becoming soulless as we rampantly ingest technology—we still look human but have taken on a colder, more mechanized persona.”
Connect with the Columbus you don’t know. Subscribe to Columbus Monthly’s weekly Top Reads newsletter.
One of the pieces the Todorovs purchased was a sculptural mixed-media piece named “AquaMarie.” Her body— made up of a combination of plastic, metal and electronic parts—strikes a gentle pose as she delicately holds and gazes at a yellow bird. Her exposed inner head reveals wires, plugs and a metal grate.
“We love his whole weird, cyberpunk aesthetic,” Dimiter says. The piece is symbolic of the “modern, weird and surrealistic” art collection the Todorovs have curated over the years—now on display inside their condominium in the Brunson Building at 145 N. High St. in Downtown Columbus. They have lived inside the turn-of-the-century building, formerly home to the Brunson Savings and Loan Co. offices, for 10 years.
While the condo may be on the smaller side, at 1,200 square feet, the art collection is expansive. It features local artists, art made by friends and family and pieces from around the world.
Dimiter is a native of Bulgaria and Shiloh grew up in central Nebraska. The two met in the early 1990s when both were studying at Morningside University in Sioux City, Iowa. The couple moved to Central Ohio in 2008 so Dimiter could take a general counsel role at Scotts Miracle-Gro. He’s now the executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary. Shiloh is the development and communications director at nonprofit Families Flourish. They lived in Dublin and the Discovery District before moving to their current home.
“I am a big fan of both traditional and modern-day surrealism and abstract modernism,” Dimiter says. “I’m not sure why, but I suspect that this was a reaction to growing up in communist Bulgaria where ‘socialist realism’ was the predominant art style. Anything to get away from the government-mandated boring art of the time.”
What artists are featured in the Todorov’s downtown condo?
Daniel Ferlan is one of the local artists the couple has been most drawn to. Their home features nine different pieces of his from different periods of his work, including “The Light Through the Mourning” exhibition at the Sharon Weiss Gallery in the Short North in 2022. A small piece featuring a skull in the Todorovs’ living room is one of their favorites. A Ferlan painting above the living room couch is called “The Monster Who Loves Gin.”
Another featured local artist is Craig Carlisle, who has created a series of heads on large canvases that are deliberately drawn on a scale that will “empower a room,” as he describes on his site. The heads typically are anonymous and genderless. In the open concept kitchen/living room, a “two head” piece named “Together Forever” looks over the space. Another piece called “Vulnerable” features one big head with blue eyes and pink lips. Both were purchased at the Sharon Weiss Gallery. Carlisle is represented by Sarah Gormley Gallery in Columbus and the George Billis Gallery in New York City and Connecticut.
Art is everywhere in the condo, including the master bathroom, which features a dark but tranquil painting by Columbus artist Christopher Burk. It was part of his “Deluge” series at the Brandt Gallery highlighting sunken houses.
Local artist Julie Woodrow’s pink ceramic face and mixed-media piece called “Persistence” also is part of the collection. She is represented by the contemporary online gallery Sherrie Gallerie.
Southeastern Ohio artist Zachary Dean Jones, whose art was featured this summer at the Marcia Evans Gallery in the Short North, created a mixed-media textured painting that hangs in the couple’s bedroom. Beneath it sits a Japanese antique Choba Tansu chest from the Meiji period that was purchased from an antique store in San Francisco.
A meaningful part of the art collection is by Ralph Laporta, a friend and restaurateur from Alexandria, Virginia. He created a figurative painting of mutual friend John Michaels as a gift to Shiloh. “I love it because a friend created it of another friend, and I love cardigans,” she says of the clothing Michaels wears in the painting.
Another fun touch is a horizontal abstract red painting over a bamboo screen in the couple’s bedroom by another Columbus artist—French-born Annette Poitau, represented by the Marcia Evans Gallery. “The whole setup in our bedroom aims for a general Zen vibe,” Dimiter says, referencing a giant Chinese antique scroll that’s also part of the décor.
The home also has a piece of art that Dimiter says is “very dear to my heart.” It is an homage to Wassily Kandinsky’s 1930 painting “Disintegrated Tension,” reimagined as a hand-woven framed tapestry made by his Bulgarian mother, Veselina Todorova.
This story appeared in the August 2025 issue of Columbus Monthly. Subscribe here.