Gergana
Nikolova

I received my bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Painting at the National Academy of Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria in 2014 and in 2016, respectively. In 2016 I took part in the exhibition “TRANSFORM 2016: Transformation of Image” in the Museum for Contemporary Art in Zagreb, Croatia. In 2017 I had my first solo exhibition in Sofia. I have participated in variety of group exhibitions and competitions in Bulgaria. In 2018 I took part in the art fair “ARTMUC” in Munich, Germany – for more information please refer to https://www.artmuc.info/. For the complete list of my participations please refer to my home page at http://gergananikolova.com/bio/.  My painting style is driven by emotion and various ideas. I extract philosophical ideas from books and seek to transfer emotions from music and impressions from dreams on the canvas as accurately as possible. At the beginning my ideas are very abstract. However, as work progresses, I find equivalents in the real world, with the aid of which the idea begins to take shape.  The technique that I’m using is greatly influenced by the classical examples – I’m following exact stages whereas I’m working with multiple layers. As I was studying at the National Academy of Arts in Sofia, I was painting with oil paint. After my graduation, I decided to try with acrylics – this new media brought me new sensation and way of painting. I still use this technique today. I combine acrylics with structure pasts, vanish or pigments, in order to achieve different effects.  I also play the piano and naturally, music in general is very important to me. I find these two branches of art – painting and music – very similar. While I’m painting, I always choose specific bands and singers to listen to. This allows me to maintain the state of mind that I need for the painting.   As I was studying at the National Academy of Arts in Sofia, I was greatly influenced by the New Objectivity and the portrait. Subsequent to my graduation, I decided to try new unexplored themes and compositions. A central role played the sport climbing, which I started two years ago. The sport of climbing gave me a new world perception and moreover, it changed my way of thinking. This also reflected on my way of painting. In the future, I would like to find more abstract and metaphysical feelings and transpose them in my compositions.