Niya Tsenkova (1999) is a multidisciplinary artist from Sofia, Bulgaria. She has been exploring the diversity of materials and experimental approaches towards producing work over the past years. After graduating from a Fine Arts bachelor program at The Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, her practice focused on the interaction between ceramics and metal. Niya took her classically oriented skills and translated them into developing her own visual language, where she works with the contrast between the organic nature of clay sculpture and the contemporary aesthetics of metal constructions. Use of negative spaces, intuitive work and separate objects forming a whole are crucial aspects in her methodology. She draws inspiration from various sources, including icons, idols, religious art, and relics; while questioning their relevance and place in the modern world. The aesthetics of religious art from the past and visual circulation of ideas it has provided is another curiosity of hers, The artist examines Cultural Heritage and its social perceptions in the context of contemporary society focusing on their visual interaction.
Education
2018–2022
Royal Academy of Art, The Hague
BA Painting and Printmaking
The Hague, the Netherlands
2012–2018
National School of Fine Arts Iliya Petrov
Illustration and Book Design
Sofia, Bulgaria
Internships
2024
Set design assistant - Igor Schiller studio
2018
De Appel, contemporary arts centre - Amsterdam
Recent Exhibitions
2024
The hundred year old window - solo show at Lira gallery Sofia, Bulgaria
Sofia Art Week 7, Campo Verita - group exhibition in Doza Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria
Group exhibition, interventions in the urban environment - “Nine Elephants” in Swimming pool gallery, and part of the Nine Elephants collection Sofia, Bulgaria
Doors.Gates.Portals - solo show at KO-OP Gallery - Sofia, Bulgaria.
Workshop/walk accompanying event to the Doors.Gates.Portals exhibition, resulting into a limited edition zine printed in Slopi Kopi. Presented at the finissage of the exhibition
Art Start - Young artists to follow in 2024, Smack the soil group exhibition at Credo Bonum Gallery- Sofia, Bulgaria
2023
Selected for Haagse Kunstenaars database to be registered as a professional artist with Stroom Den Haag
“A brief wind of telekinesis” group exhibition at Personeelskamer - Amsterdam, Netherlands
Re-Build group exhibition at De Hillevliet, part of South Explorer - Rotterdam, Netherlands
2022
The Tiny Art Gallery The Hague, group exhibition; hosted by Posta space, during FIG.3 festival - Sofia, Bulgaria
HECTOBAR 21.0, De Ijskast Rotterdam, Netherlands
Commissioned gilding work
Part of Hoogtij #71 with Visible Invisibility
Visible Invisibility- exhibition at 98 Gallery Pop-up location The Hague, Netherlands
Two week residency RODA, resulting in an exhibition at the Jovan Popovic Gallery
Opovo, Serbia
Shortlisted for the Arts Thread Global Design Graduate show
Graduation Show at the Royal academy of art, The Hague
2021
“MY ALTAR” KABK Fine Arts Pre-graduation exhibition
“As Is Where Is” at Atenor; The Hague, Netherlands
2020
“States of Being” mixed media installation part of a
group exhibition at Maakhaven; The Hague, Netherlands
“93-95 assemblage”, temporary independent
exhibition space, hosting a multidisciplinary dynamic group assemblage
Sofia, Bulgaria
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