About
Hello!
I am a Bulgarian illustrator constantly on the move.
In 2017, I graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna with Illustration and Comics, and in 2020 I completed a Master’s in Children’s Book Illustration at the Cambridge School of Art.
In 2020, I received the award Student Illustrator of the Year Runner-Up, from the annual Illustration Awards at the Victoria and Albert museum.
From then on, I have had the chance to publish picture books in several countries.
Besides working as a freelance illustrator, I am pleased to be a mentor at the Venster Academy in Utrecht.
Published work
Моята София и други образи (My Sofia and Other Folks, working title), Vyara Boyadjieva, published with Tochitza Publishing, 2024.
Word Trouble, Vyara Boyadjieva, published with Walker Books 2023.
Misé Misé, Camille Lavoix, Vyara Boyadjieva, published with La Joie de Lire, 2022.
A Day That’s Ours, Blake Nuto, Vyara Boyadjieva, published with Flying Eye Books, 2022.
I Am a Bulgarian Woman, multiple authors, published with Ciela Publishing, 2019.
The Beautiful Cassandra, Jane Austen, Vyara Boyadjieva, published with List Publishing, 2018.
COMPETITIONS
2024: Nominated for the prestigious national award “Hristo G. Danov” in Bulgaria, in the category “The Art of Book Making”
2024: Part of the jury at the FARA festival, Burgas, Bulgaria.
2023: The Sofianer
2020: Student Illustrator of the Year Runner-Up at the V&A Museum Illustration Award 2020.
Articles announcing the winners:
2018: BUCHSCHMUCK, first prize. A competition organised by the Goethe Institut in Sofia, celebrating German literature through illustration.
EXHIBITIONS
2024: 145 Years of Sofia as Bulgaria’s capital, a solo open-air exhibition with all the artworks of my book “My Sofia and Other Folks” in front of the National Palace of Culture, Sofia.
2023: The Sofianer
2020: VIJ! The Isolation, a group exhibition of artworks made during the pandemic (COVID-19) in Credo Bonum Gallery, Sofia, organised by Vij! Mag.
2020: the Children’s Book Illustration Master’s course exhibition in London, at the Candid Arts Trust gallery. Short-listed for the Sebastian Walker Prize for ‘best picture book’ alongside four other illustrators.
2020: the Children’s Book Illustration Master’s course exhibition in Cambridge, at the Ruskin gallery.
2020: History in Portraits, a group exhibition in the gallery Rakursi, in Sofia. On the occasion of the book I Am a Bulgarian Woman, published by Ciela, in 2019.
2018: BUCHSCHMUCK, a group exhibition organised and based in the Goethe Institut in Sofia.
2017: Notte Bianca, an annual event when the Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna opens its doors to visitors.