EDUCATION

• 2011 - 2015 - PhD Fine Art, Winchester School of Art (University of Southampton)

• 2010 - 2011 - MA of Fine Arts - distinction, Winchester School of Art, UK (University of Southampton) 

• 2002 - 2006 - BA of Fine Arts - distinction, Academy of Fine Art, Plovdiv, Bulgaria

• 1996 - 2002 - Specialized High School for Fine Arts "Tzanko Lavrenov", Plovdiv, Bulgaria

 

 

EXHIBITIONS (*solo shows marked by asterisk), AWARDS
 

2023 - Visual Art Open, selected in final five works in Painting category for The Other Fair, London, UK

2023 - "Climate Changing" Exhibition, Las Laguna Art Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA, USA

2023 - "Art Masters January 2023" Competition, Top Art Awards, Award of Excellence  

2022 - 6th Open Theme Competition, Artshowinternational gallery, First place

2022 - Collectiva Contemporània, group exhibition, Abartium Gallery, Barcelona, Spain

2021 - The Stables In Exile Gallery, Featured artist, August 2021, London, UK 

2021 - ALL Landscape Competition, Fifth place for the painting Fields, Contemporary Art Gallery Online 

2021 - London Art Biennale, shortlisted for exhibition, London, UK

2021 - Landscapes, Exhibition, Las Laguna Art Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA, USA

2020 - ING Discerning Eye - shortlisted for final exhibition

2020 - Painter-Stainers Art Sale - The Lynn Foundation, online exhibition

2020 - Sunny Art Prize - shortlisted for final exhibition, London, UK  - https://www.sunnyartcentre.co.uk/artprize/previous-entries/shortlisted-artists-2020/ 

2020 - The Collective, A Way Gallery, Canada

2017 - ArtPrize - Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA

2017 - Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize - shortlisted for final exhibition, Mall Galleries, London, UK

2016 - So Close, So Far - National Palace of Culture, Sofia, Bulgaria

2016 - Utopia:Dystopia - exhibition, part of FaB16 festival of contemporary art, Bath, UK

2014 - Portraits of the opera singer Boris Christoff as part of the event dedicated to his anniversary, Bulgarian Cultural Institute, London. One of the paintings was included in the permanent collection of the institute. 

2014 - "Image-Text-Object", exhibition of PhD students, Hartley Library, Southampton

2013 - RAW, exhibition of PhD students from Winchester School of Art, 5th Base Gallery, London

2013 - "Painting as Research", The Paint Club, Beaconsfield, London 

2013 - Postgraduate Research Exhibition, the Winchester Gallery, Winchester School of Art

2012 - *'Utopias', The Y, Leicester

2012 - 'Roy's Salon Tea Party', the Fountain, London

2012 - Winchester School of Art Graduate Research Exhibition

2012 - 'Mull It Over', Brighton -www.collatepresents.com/mull-it-over-jan-12.html

2009 - *Looking Back, Gallery Altera, Sofia

2006 - *Landscapes, Art cafe, Bulgaria, Sofia

2005 - International Fair, Plovdiv, student exhibition “Impression”

2004 - Gallery “Balaban house”, Bulgaria, student exhibition

2003 - Library “Ivan Vazov”, Bulgaria, student painting exhibition

2002 - Foundation “Anastas Staykov”, 1st place prize for painting

2002 - Rotary club, competition prize “Life without Drugs”, Bulgaria, Plovdiv, poster

2001 - *Communal gallery, Perushtica, Bulgaria, student exhibition

2001 - „German-Bulgarian centre Sachsen-Anhalt”, Bulgaria, photography

2001 -  “Life without AIDS” exhibition, Bulgarian Red Cross

2001 - Illustration “Bay Ganyo Thinks” in newspaper "Now", Sofia, Bulgaria

1999 - Newspaper “Standart”, competition “Plovdiv - the City of the Dreams”, Bulgaria, Plovdiv, prize for painting 

1999 - *Gallery “House of the Teacher”, Bulgaria, Plovdiv

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PUBLICATIONS, PAPERS, AWARDS

2014 - "How to Create an Ideal Past: Nostalgia, Photography and Socialist Realism in a Post-Communist Context", paper at the collaborative AHRC funded project "Looking at Images", Winchester School of Art and Goldsmiths University, London

2014 - "Looking at Images" - co-organising collaborative project together with PhD students at Goldsmiths University

2014 - Paper “Between Propaganda and Cultural Diplomacy: Nostalgia towards Socialist Realism in
Post-Communist Bulgaria”, in: Art as Cultural Diplomacy: European Perspectives,
ed. by Cassandra Sciortino, Cambridge Scholars Press

2014 - “Collapse of a Grand Recit? Images from Socialist Realism in a Post-Communist Context”, paper at the collaborative project "Working with Images", Goldsmiths University, London - http://radmediaforum.wordpress.com/working-with-images/

2013 -  Paper “Fragments of a Past: Socialist Realist Images in a Post-Communist Situation”, in: Behind the Eyes. Making Pictures, ed. by Beth Harland, London: RGAP & Camberwell

2013 - "Between Propaganda and Cultural Diplomacy: Nostalgia towards Socialist Realism in Post-Communist Bulgaria", paper at International Euroacademia Conference 2013, Prague, Czech Republic - http://euroacademia.eu/presentation/between-propaganda-and-cultural-diplomacy-nostalgia-towards-socialist-realism-in-post-communist-bulgaria/  

2013 - "Constructing New Identities: Images of Socialist Realism and Contemporary Fine Art in Post-Communist Bulgaria", paper at International Euroacademia Conference 2013, Zagreb, Croatia - http://euroacademia.eu/presentation/constructing-new-identities-images-of-socialist-realism-and-contemporary-fine-art-in-post-communist-bulgaria/

2013 - “Collapse of a Grand Recit? Interpretations of Socialist Realism in Post-Communist Bulgaria”, paper at ACLA (American Comparative Literature Association) International Conference, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

2013 - 'Fragments of a Past: Socialist Realist Images in a Post-Communist Situation', paper at the symposium "Behind the Eyes", Northumbria University, Newcastle

2012 - Beep International Painting Prize 'Through Tomorrow’s Eyes' - shortlisted for final exhibition, Swansea, Wales - http://www.beepwales.co.uk/exhibitors1.html

2012 - "Art and Ideology in a Post-Communist Country: the Status of Fine Art in Bulgaria After the Fall of Communism", paper at Winchester School of Art Graduate Research Conference

2012 - Publication in FUSSED Magazine (01.2012), Winchester School of Art
2008 - Henkel and KulturKontakt competition, shortlisted for exhibition, Vienna, Austria 
2005 - Home for neglected children “Maria Luiza”, German-Bulgarian charity project, mural
1999 - Foundation “Future for Bulgaria”, residence programme for young artists, Bulgaria