Iva Petrova Kuyumdzhieva

Born in Sofia in 1973 Iva Petrova Kuyumdzhieva studied art history at the St. Kliment Ohridsky University in Sofia and completed her studies with her thesis »Dominant Concepts and Valuable Reference Points in the Language of the Bulgarian Artists.« From 1993 until 1996 she studied painting at the Free Academy Dgul Paskin. In 2003 she completed her doctorate at the St. Kliment Ohridsky University in the department of Applied Cultural Studies. In 1998 she received the Art-in-Bulgaria Prize as the best artist of the year for her presentation, »The Art Grocery Store« . As part of the project an article entitled »The Art Grocery Store - the Missing Scandal« appeared in the magazine »Izkoustvo / Art in Bulgaria« (58/59; 1998), a journal specializing in contemporary art. In the same year she, in cooperation with Aleksandra Ivanova, completed a project entitled »Art Gourmet« In addition to developing art programs for orphans, she was in 2000 employed as a program planner for Demo Television in Sofia. Together with Tzveta Valeva she was a curator in 2001 of the posthumous exhibition featuring works by the Bulgarian artist Galabin Kiossev. In the framework of the research project »The Post-Communist Condition,« she has been working with the sociologist Petya Kabakchieva on an empirical study of »The Artists in Postcommunist Societies (1986–2003),« which examines from an art-sociological perspective the restrictions currently facing Bulgarian artists, the changes in these conditions, and the effects that political and economic changes have had on artistic creation.