Lilyana Karadjova

Short biographical note:

Lilyana Karadjova is a Bulgarian photographer, art historian and philosopher based in Sofia, Bulgaria and Rome, Italy. She lectures in the National Academy of Arts, Bulgaria, and in BA and MA programs in the New Bulgarian University on theory and history of photography, analysis of the photographic image, black-and-white photography, alternative photographic processes, photo art therapy. In 2016 she defended a PhD thesis on Psychological Concepts of Imagination in Art and Photography in the 20th and 21st Century in the National Academy of Arts, Bulgaria. Her research interests are in the field of psychological approaches in the theory of photography. She is a visiting professor in the Abat Oliba CEU University, Barcelona.

In the field of criticism she has worked as an art columnist in the national Novinar daily (2008-2016) and has frequently contributed to the magazines L'Europeo, Art and Critique, the Kultura [Culture] newspaper, Bulletin of UBA.
Personal statement:



I am interested in photography as a medium with a specific dual potential. Photography links the real and the imaginary, the window and the tunnel, transparency and surface, the close and the distant as defined in the well-known ...

EDUCATION
2011 - 2016 PhD, National Academy of Arts, Bulgaria
Doctoral Dissertation: Psychological Concepts of Imagination in Art and Photography
2010 - 2011 MA in Photography, National Academy of Arts, Bulgaria
2003 - 2007 BA in Philosophy, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”

SELECTED AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS
2019 – Award ‘Image’ by New Bulgarian University for the exhibition New Faces of the Market
2019 – First place in the annual contest of The Union of Bulgarian Artists, art residence in Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris
2019 – ‘Best series’ award by NY Photo Curator for 'Diptychs' curated by Ellen Wallenstein.
2018 – Erasmus Mundus Fellowship for visiting professor in Abat Oliba CEU, Barcelona
2013 – Nominee in ‘Photography’, VII Jeux de la Francophonie, Acropolis, Nice

SELECTED PERSONAL EXHIBITIONS
2019 – ‘Street Ivats Voyvoda’, National Gallery, Museum House Andrey Nikolov, Sofia
2018/2019 – ‘Freedom Here-and-now’, in collaboration with Dimitar Stoyanovich, Sofia Arsenal - Museum for Contemporary Art, National Gallery
2015 – ‘Black spots / Light thoughts’, the fridge gallery, Sofia
2011 – ‘Dream Machine’, International Meetings of Photography, Regional History Museum, Plovdiv
2010 – ‘Postidentity’, Gallery Academy, National Academy of Arts, Sofia

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2019 – ‘Bulgarian Participation’, La Biennale di Roma, Gallery LuxArt, Rome
2019 – ‘Urban Lights’, Gallery LoosenArt, Rome
2019 – ‘The Border of the Photographic’, Gallery Academy, Sofia
2018 – ‘Photographic Original and Art Practices II’, The Red House Centre for Culture and Debate, Sofia
2017 – ‘Photographic Original and Art Practices I’, The Red House Centre for Culture and Debate, Sofia
2017 – ‘Light and Time’, Art Alley Gallery, Sofia
2016 – ‘Frame Capsules’, Monev Gallery, Sofia
2014 - International Triennial of Graphic Arts, Sofia, Bulgaria. Collective exhibition of the participants. Single work, selection. ‘Deep Sea Secrets’, cyanotype print
2013 – ‘Jeux de la Francophonie’, Acropolis, Nice
2012 – ‘...