JULIA MALEEVA
Julia was born in Bulgaria in 1974. After receiving her BA in Fine Arts and MA in Architecture, she went to USA where she completed Postgraduate specialisation in Architectural Heritage in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. This work was commissioned by the Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record and involved architectural surveys and drawings of historic bridges and factories. The papers from this project are kept in the American Library of Congress.
She has lived in Bristol, UK since 2008.
In her more than 20 years career as an architect and interior designer, Julia has successfully completed many projects, residential conversions and renovations, and interior design projects in Bulgaria, UK, Romania, Germany. In the last few years she has returned to fine art full time and is working in her own studio in Bristol.
Most of Julia’s work is inspired by her travels around the South West of England, French Provence and rural Bulgaria, involving a lot of drawing, sketching, en plein air painting. Influenced by her architectural background often the protagonist is a forgotten old building or a sleepy bridge.
Inspired by the works of Willem De Kooning, Robert Motherwell and Sammy Peters since she has been living in USA, Julia describes her style as abstract expressionism. Working in oils, Julia is fascinated with the interplay of different perspectives and dimensions, amalgamation of techniques and has been exploring new fusion of drypoint and oil painting, wrapped in cold wax.
Julia says about her work: "Art for me is a deconstruction process of layers of paint waiting to be scraped and laid out in a different perspective, just to become a witness of something more interesting. The way I am going backwards I am discovering a unique story, like a detective game to find clues from the past."
Since 2019 Julia is successfully exhibiting in art galleries and art fairs around the UK:
- Carina Haslam Gallery
- Lighthouse Gallery, Penzance
- Graham Hunter Gallery, London
- The Tyler Gallery, Mousehole
- Spring Gallery, Cheltenham
- The Moreton Gallery, Cotswolds
- Portside Gallery, Bristol
- North Gallery, Bristol
She won the People Choice Award in Clifton Art Summer Exhibition, Bristol 2021.
Associate member of Penwith Society of Arts Cornwall
Committee member of Clifton Art Club in Bristol
Her artwork, art installations and murals are featured in private homes in the UK and Bulgaria, and in the archives of the Library of Congress, USA.