Bulgarian visual artist based in Genoa, Italy
Harita
Asumani
I often begin with myself, because my own body and experience are the closest material I have.
What begins as something personal can become an image that no longer belongs only to me.
Artist and practice
Working from the first person
I am a Bulgarian visual artist whose practice centres on painting and self-portraiture.
For years, I have used my own figure as a way of exploring the things that interest me, from intimacy and vulnerability to desire, freedom and the contradictions we experience in our relationships with ourselves and others.
Sometimes the figure is recognisably me. At other times, the resemblance becomes less important. What interests me is how something that begins with my own experience can move beyond it and become familiar to someone else.
Selected projects
Ideas taking form
A selection of projects that reflect different moments in my practice, from personal experiences and questions to the ways they gradually take shape through art.
What Warms, What Burns
These paintings explore the unstable space between the desire for closeness and the instinct to protect ourselves. Through the human figure and the recurring image of fire, I return to feelings that can be tender, difficult and contradictory at once.
Artists Can’t Talk
This project began with questions about how artists communicate beyond their images. Through painting, personal stories and eventually performance, I explored vulnerability, the difficulty of speaking openly and the moments when remaining silent no longer feels possible.
It’s Not Time for Romance
I began this series during a happy period in my life, while the war in Ukraine was unfolding. I wanted to paint people kissing, but found myself questioning whether personal happiness could feel inappropriate in such a time. Eventually, I realised that love and war do not cancel each other out.
Falling ≠Flying
An exploration of the uncertain space between falling and flying, where fear, vulnerability and the possibility of freedom can exist at the same time.
Exhibitions and milestones
My practice over time
Selected exhibitions, projects and experiences that have shaped my work.
Cité Internationale des Arts
Artist residency, Paris
Falling ≠Flying
Solo exhibition, KO-OP, Sofia
30 Naked Truths
A series of line drawings that became a starting point for many of my later paintings.
BAZA Award
Award finalist, Sofia City Art Gallery
Artists Can’t Talk
Painting, personal narratives and performance
What Warms, What Burns
Solo exhibition, Narrativa Gallery, Veliko Tarnovo
Artist’s reflection
Following the painting
My work has always begun with the image, but my relationship with painting has been changing over time.
For years, personal experiences, memories, relationships and inner conflicts have found their way into my paintings. I often discovered that what began as something deeply personal could also be familiar to someone else.
Self-portraiture has remained a natural part of this process. My own figure is still the closest material I have, but I no longer feel the same need to explain every painting through the experience that inspired it.
Increasingly, I find myself drawn to the act of painting itself. To colour, gesture, the movement of the body, the way one image can lead to another, and the pleasure of making something without knowing exactly where it will take me.
I still begin with myself, but I am learning to give the painting more freedom to find its own direction.
Available from my studio
Original paintings and limited editions
Explore the works currently available from my studio, with details on each painting and edition.
Original paintings
Original works on canvas. Contact me directly for availability, prices and further photographs.
Signed limited editions
Fine art prints of selected paintings, personally signed and accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.