Martina Vacheva was born 1988 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. She lives and works in Plovdiv and Brittany, West France. Martina graduated from the National Academy of Arts in Sofia, majoring in Illustration and Book and Print Graphics, in 2012 she specialized in the illustrator’s class of Georg Barber (ATAK) at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle, Germany.
Her first solo show was in 2016 at SARIEV Contemporary as part of the gallery’s program BACKGROUND: Young Artists 2016 exhibition, curated by Vera Mlechevska. Later on her works have been exhibited in many curatorial group exhibitions and projects such as: “Lifestyles and Still Life” curated by Vera Mlechevska, Lubomirov/Angus-Hughes, London, (2016); Exhibition of nominees for the BAZA Award for contemporary art, Sofia City Art Gallery (2017); “The Image is no Longer Available” curated by Vesela Nozharova, Credo Bonum Gallery, Sofia (2017); “My Dear Provincialist” curated by Victoria Draganova, Swimming Pool, Sofia (2017); “Let Them Draw II (Drawing and Withdrawing)” group show - drawings, curated by Pravdoliub Ivanov at SARIEV Contemporary (2017); “Art start: Young artists to Follow in 2017” curated by Vessela Nozharova, Stefka Tsaneva, Daniela Radeva, Credo Bonum Gallery, Sofia (2017); "Baywatch" curated by Nathalie Hoyos and Rainald Schumacher, KVOST, Berlin (2018); "Dias de Romance" curated by Carmen Ferreyra, Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2018); "Schock und Schrecken" curated by Stefka Tsaneva, Goethe-Institut Bulgarien, Sofia (2018); "Immersion - Background: Young Artists from Plovdiv", curated by Vera Mlechevska, Bulgarian Embassy in Helzinki, Finland (2018); “Listen to Us – Artistic Intelligence (exhibition of Deutsche Telekom – Art Collection Telekom)” curated by Nathalie Hoyos and Rainald Schumacher, Plovdiv (2019); the group show “Background Young Artists from Plovdiv”, Plovdiv (2019); "EVN Collection: Franz Kapfer/Lazar Lyutakov/Martina Vacheva" (2019), SKLAD, Plovdiv, curated by Thomas D. Trummer, Director of Kunsthaus Bregenz and organized by Heike Meier-Rieper, member of the Arts council of EVN Collection; "Crack up - Crack down" Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, curators Slavs and Tatars, co-curator Michał Grzegorzek (2020); Keeping the Balance, works from Art Collection Telekom, Museum Ludwig, Budapest, curated by Krisztina Szipőcs, Nathalie Hoyos and Rainald Schumacher (2020).
Her solo shows are: “Sereality", BACKGROUND: Young Artists, Sariev Contemporary, Plovdiv (2016); "Mud", Sariev Contemporary, Plovdiv (2018); "КОРЕНИ / Roots / Wurzeln" within the exhibition format "6 1/2 Weeks", Museum Folkwang, Essen (2019); “The Sex and the city”, Institute of Contemporary Art, Sofia (2020).
In the summer of 2019 Martina participated at her first biennale - 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts “Crack Up – Crack Down" (7 June - 29 September 2019), curated by Slavs and Tatars where she won Research Residency Award.
Upcoming in 2021 - “Diversity United – Contemporary European Art”, group show, curatorial committee, traveling exhibition, Tempelhof, Berlin, spring 2021; New Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, summer 2021; Palais de Tokyo, Paris, autumn 2021.
Martina Vacheva is the 2017 BAZA / Young Visual Artists Awards winner - a prize attributed by the Sofia City Art Gallery and Institute of Contemporary Art – Sofia. She was awarded with two-month participation in Residency Unlimited, NY.
Her works are in the collections of Art Collection Telekom, Metropolitan museum library collection, New York, Gaudenz B. Ruf collection, Zurich, Vienna, and Museum Folkwang, Essen, EVN Collection.
She designed the evn collection Christmas card for 2019 and 2020 calendar.
Martina Vacheva works with Sariev Contemporary from 2015 and is represented by Sariev Contemporary since 2018 until 2021.
Obliquely drawing on a tradition of Pop, Martina Vacheva’s seemingly naive and charming works contain an understated sophistication which can be described in her use of color, composition and humor. For all its apparent immediacy, what she does also sneaks up on you, revealing much more, if you let it. (Chris Sharp, curator and contributing editor of Art Review)