"Lockdown" Painting

Alfia Kircheva is a contemporary figurative artist based in Varna, Bulgaria. Born in Moscow, she studied painting at Moscow Academic College and has lived and worked in Bulgaria since 2003.
Working across painting, drawing and photography, Kircheva explores the human body as a psychological landscape — a place where vulnerability, desire, strength, intimacy and freedom coexist. Her work examines the emotional and symbolic dimensions of human experience, focusing on the delicate balance between inner power and fragility.
Influenced by Post-Impressionism, Expressionism and Symbolism, she combines expressive colour, dynamic gesture and emotional intensity with a strong interest in the relationship between the visible body and the invisible inner world. Sensuality, identity, trust, memory and the need for human connection are recurring themes throughout her artistic practice.
Kircheva has participated in numerous exhibitions and international art events in Bulgaria and abroad. In 2025, she was selected to participate in the XV Florence Biennale, one of the world's leading international exhibitions of contemporary art and design, held at the Fortezza da Basso in Florence, Italy. The edition brought together artists and designers from more than 80 countries under the theme "The Sublime Essence of Light and Darkness."
Her work is included in private collections in Bulgaria and abroad. The painting Woman with a Spinning Wheel from the Razgrad Region is part of the collection of the Ethnographic Museum in Varna, Bulgaria.
In 2025, Kircheva founded the Association of Women Artists in Bulgaria – Frida, a non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting professional women artists, encouraging cultural exchange and increasing the visibility of women's artistic achievements nationally and internationally. As Chairperson of the Association, she actively develops exhibitions, educational initiatives and cultural projects that strengthen the contemporary art community in Bulgaria.
Alongside her studio practice, Kircheva is engaged in curatorial, educational and cultural activities. Her work reflects a continuing interest in the complexity of human nature and the ways in which the body, gesture and emotion can communicate experiences that words often cannot express.
For Kircheva, the human figure is never merely a subject. It is a language through which people reveal their fears, desires, resilience, vulnerability and longing for connection.