statement

My work is an allegorical representation of our contemporary individual and social states. What interests me most is our human duality and multi-faceted nature. I seek to capture the coexistence of vulnerability and power, uncertainty and conviction, depravity and elevation in one and the same individual and/or society. The figure or object in my images functions as an allegorical vehicle - a subtle but charged signifier for a suggested yet ultimately open-ended meaning. The outer becomes emblematic of the inner, whether the outer representation reveals my subject's inner state and dissonance or my subject acts as a personification of an idea. The iconography, formal decisions, and drawing and painting processes are closely intertwined to create subtle, incomplete signs with cognitive, sensual and emotive power intended to draw in the viewer and invite her or his attempt for interpretation.   

bio

born: 1978, Sofia, Bulgaria

education

Syracuse University, MFA in Painting, 2007
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, undergraduate certificate degree in Painting, 2004
Interlochen Arts Academy, high school degree, 1997

selected awards/honors

Best of Show award, Rochester Museum of Fine Arts Biennial Exhibition, 2013
Dominican University Faculty Development Summer Research Grant, Dominican University, River Forest, IL, 2011
Purchase Prize of the Permanent Collection of the Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 2009
Three Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grants, 2005, 2000 and 1997

selected publications

International Drawing Annual, Manifest Creative Research Gallery and Drawing Center – Manifest Press, volume 7, 2013
International Painting Annual, Manifest Creative Research Gallery and Drawing Center – Manifest Press, volume 1, p. 133, 2011
International Drawing Annual, Manifest Creative Research Gallery and Drawing Center – Manifest Press, volume 5, pp. 133-135, 2011
Contemporary American Realism Exhibition, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, p. 88., 2010

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Elena Peteva and Brett Eberhardt: Recent Works, two-person exhibition, Artists' House Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, 2011
Elena Peteva and Brett Eberhardt: Recent Works, two-person exhibition, Artists' House Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, 2009                
Elena Peteva and Brett Eberhardt: Recent Works, two-person exhibition, Artists' House Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, 2008
Elena Peteva: Recent Works, solo exhibition, Artists' House Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, 2007

selected group shows

77th Midyear National Juried Exhibition at The Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, OH, 2013
Grace 2013 Kreft Juried National Exhibition at Concordia University Kreft Gallery in Ann Arbor, MI, 2013
Year of the Woman, invitational exhibition, Artists' House Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, 2013
The Figure Now, national juried exhibition, at Fontbonne University Fine Arts Gallery in Saint Louis, MO, 2013