Untitled 9 (Nature Takes Back series), 2021, drawing – watercolor on paper, 30 x 42 cm

> Stela Vasileva (b.1983) (stelavasileva.com) lives and works in Sofia. She graduated from the National Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia with a major in Mural Painting. She works in the area of the object, the installation and the drawing. She explores the form, the objects in space, with the main attempt to unload the objects of any superfluous elements, while also putting it out of the context of its concrete (ordinary) environment. In doing so, she often erases the boundaries of real space.

Stela Vasileva won the Gaudenz B. Ruf Award (2010), Nominations for the BAZA Award for Contemporary Art (2013-2015) as well as various residences including KulturKontakt, Vienna, Austria (2012), Krinzinger Projekte, Petomihalyfa, Hungary – Vienna (2012), Cité Internationale des arts Paris, France (2014). Stela Vasileva participated in numerous group exhibitions and projects some of which: ‘‘State of Apparition’’ Aether Gallery, Hague, Holland (2019); Shifting Layers / Young Art at the Museum, Sofia City Art Gallery (2017); Process in Progress, Bäckerstrasse4 – plattform für junge kunst, Vienna, AT (2015); ViennaContemporary, Focus Bulgaria, Vienna, AT (2015) and others. Among her solo appearances are: “Signs of Sound”, +359 Gallery, Sofia and The Cultural Center – Palace Balchik (2018/2017); ”Tunnel”, underpass of metro station Vardar (urban environment intervention, 2017); “Under Construction”, Contemporary Space Gallery, Varna (2015); “5 Boxes”, The fridge, Sofia (2015); “Work and Leisure”, Un Cabinet D’Amateur Gallery, Sofia (2014) and others.

~ Her project for the exhibition “Nature Takes Back” includes a series of watercolor drawings of garbage fused with nature. “The perverse fusion between the natural and the human in a degrading and unproductive way – reached its peak today. When an unexpected isolation caused by Covid-19 showed us that there is another way” – Stela Vasileva.