Albena Hristova
Biography
Albena was born in a family of artists and received 12 years of classical art training in Europe. She started painting when she was only four years old. Shortly after graduation Albena created several large murals. Albena’s first solo art show was in 1987. During time in Europe, Albena participated every year at Art Basel – the most prestigious modern art show in the world. Corporate and private collectors bought all her art before every show opening. In 1990 Albena moved to Southern California with her family.
During the first few years in the USA Albena had several solo shows in Washington, DC, Los Angeles and Chicago and sold her original art to private collectors. During this period she had great success selling her originals, but she also realized how few people have access to her art across the globe. Albena’s vision and ambition was to touch as many people as it was possible in her lifetime. She needed a different channel to realize her dreams. In 2000, Albena discovered the world of art publishing. In New York, she met the owners of a wonderful company called Wild Apple Graphics and as they say the rest is history.
Albena had instant success in the art publishing business. Over the last 15 years she has created over thousand images that have sold as millions of prints across all five continents. You already may have seen her work in Nordstrom, Macy’s JC Penny’s, Aaron Brothers, Cost Plus, Pier One and many other furniture and accessories chains and retailers. The wide appeal of Albena’s artistic sensibilities has also lead to many licensing contracts with many different home decor companies, including seven wildly successful signature wallpaper collections. You can find her merchandise in Bed, Bath and Beyond, Kirkland, Harrods in London, eBay, Amazon, etc.
Albena artistic interest have taken her to many different subject matters and styles from the classical and traditional to the expressionist and abstract; from florals and architectural themes to canyons and minerals. Albena’s has developed a unique style that can be easily recognized across her large body of work.
Artist Statement – Faces of the Earth
I have been painting all my life; it is what I do. For me everything starts with seeing. Nothing rings more true to me than “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. I feel that my mission is to help the beholders open their eyes and imagination to all the beauty around us. Your hectic life might make it hard to see it at first, but is it so wonderful when you finally do. I am here to help you see that beauty.
I travel a lot. I have spent a lot of time with different cultures around the world and I have put many of these encounters on canvas. In my travels I have also seen many beautiful flowers and have shared them with the world through my paintings. I know that people see this beauty through my eyes, my brush and my strokes because my art has reached millions of homes.
This pursuit is a never ending process. I surprise myself to find new things in unexpected places. This is how my journey with the Faces of the Earth began. I started seeing beautiful faces on rocks, ice, water, sky and trees; it was all around me. And there was so much emotion in this realization and so much desire to ask people around me “Have you seen this? Do you understand what happens when you get really close to a ‘face’ and let your imagination run wild?”
Now this happens to me every day. I can’t wait to get up in the morning and start painting all these new faces. My studio is getting filled with something that I have never done before: I give myself over to the pure emotion of my visual connection to all these Faces of the Earth. It is a journey with no boundaries in texture, form or color. It is a free dance of my imagination in the nooks and crannies of mother earth and its infinite elements.
I want you to come along with me and challenge your ability to make your own discoveries in these close encounters with the Earth. And for those that still need some classification of what this is, I still don’t have anything better to say to you that these are “The Faces of the Earth as I See Them”.
Education
1978 – Sofia Bulgaria Fine Art High School
1983 – Masters of Fine Art, Mural Painting, Academy of Fine Arts Sofia Bulgaria
Exhibition History
1987 Solo Show, Sofia Bulgaria
1987 Art Basel, Switzerland
1988 Art Basel, Switzerland
1988 InterArt, Poland
1989 Art Basel, Switzerland
1989 Frankfurt Art Fair, West Germany
1989 World Youth Festival, Pyongyang, North Korea
1989 8th Youth Exhibition, Sofia, Bulgaria
1990 Art Basel, Switzerland
1991 Solo Show, Lory Kay Gallery at the Disneyland Hilton, Anaheim, CA
1992 Solo Show, Michael Stone Collection Gallery, George Town, Washington, DC
1995 Solo Show, Nelly Angel Gallery, Chicago, IL
2000 – 2009 ArtExpo, New York
2000 – 2016 Surtex, New York
2010 – 2016 West Coast Art and Frame Show, Las Vegas, NV
2016 – Bistango, Irvine, CA
2017 – 2022 – Luminarte Gallery, Dallas, TX
2022 – The Barker Gallery, London, England
Related
- December 4, 2022
