Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva
Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva (born 1971, Kavadarci, Macedonia) is a Macedonian-born artist based in Brighton, UK. She has exhibited extensively and realised numerous commissions nationally and internationally, in gallery spaces, museums and within the public realm. Hadzi-Vasileva was selected by the Ministry of Culture to represent Macedonia at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013, with Ana Frangovska, curator at the National Gallery of Macedonia.
Recent sites and commissions include Pied à Terre, London; Gloucester Cathedral, Gloucester; Towner Gallery, Eastbourne; Southgate Shopping Centre, Bath; Swiss Embassy and the World Bank, Macedonia; Kilmainham Gaol Museum, Ireland; ArtSway at the 51st Venice Biennale in Italy and Public Room, Skopje. She graduated in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art, London, in 1998.
Work
Hadzi-Vasileva is a site specific installation artist who works across the varied media of sculpture, installation, video and sound, photography, and architectural interventions. This has included Ambush (2000), which was a temporary outdoor architectural intervention, where engineered tunnels were used to expose the roots of living trees with glazed roof areas allowing the visitors to see the world from below the ground, a project co-ordinated by Southern Arts, and hosted by ArtSway and the Forestry Commission.
Central to Hadzi-Vasileva's practice is a response to the particularities of place: its history, locale, environment and/or communities. She often uses materials that already have an existing link or history to the specific environment, which often results in new and unusual methods of working. Past works have included the use of organic materials, foodstuffs (butter, fish skins, chicken skins, internal animal organs, rice, and watercress) and precious metals (gold, silver, copper).
Awards
Hadzi-Vasileva has been the recipient of many awards including the 2013 Alexandra Reinhardt Memorial Awards, to develop a new commission for mima, Middlesbrough and Engage, London. In 2010 she received an award of recognition for special achievements in the field of Fine Art for the development of the town of Kavadarci by the national Assembly of Kavadarci, Macedonia. She was also selected to represent Macedonia at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013. She was recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation award in 2002, was shortlisted for the Jerwood Sculpture Prize (2001), and Spitalfields Sculpture Prize (2010).
Residencies and Commissions
Hadzi-Vasileva was Artist in Restaurant at the Michelin-starred restaurant, Pied a Terre, London (2011). Other Artist in Residence awards have included mima, Middlesbrough (2013), Gloucester Cathedral (2008–2009), The Irish Museum of Modern Art (2005), The Berwick Gymnasium Fellowship (2001) and ArtSway (1999–2000). She was commissioned by Bristol City Council to develop permanent work, Transpire (2010) for St. Bede's Catholic College in Bristol, and Road to Nowhere (2002), a temporary work commissioned by The Samling Foundation for Kielder Forest, Northumberland. Other public art commissions have included Raison d'être (2010–2013), a permanent commission for Southgate Shopping Centre, in Bath; We Are Shadows (2008) at Unit2, London; Life Cycle (2004) at Knowle West Health Part, Bristol; Re|Sort (2002) at Fabrica Gallery, Brighton; and Ambush (2000) at Rhinefield Ornamental Drive, the New Forest.
Education
- 1998 MA in Sculpture, Royal College of Art, London
- 1996 BA (Hons) in Sculpture, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, Scotland
Key artworks
- Reoccurring Undulation (2011) (Installation)
- Witness of Virility (2011) (Sculpture)
- My Beautiful Army (2011) (Sculpture)
- Gunna (2009) (Sculpture)
- Motectum (2009) (Sound Installation)
- Angel 1–40 (2009) (Sculpture)
- We Are Shadows (2008) (Sculpture)
- Butterflies in the Stomach (2007–2008) (Installation with sound)
- Time Stands Still, 1916 & 1991–2001 (2006) (Photography)
- me, you & them (2005) (Film and video)
- Life Cycle (2004) (Sculpture)
- Re|sort (2002) (Installation)
- Road to Nowhere (2002) (Installation)
- Epidermis (2000–2001) (Installation)
- Butter Wall (2000) (Sculpture)
- Ambush (2000) (Architecture and Environment)
Selected solo exhibitions
- 2011 The Wish of the Witness, Pied à Terre, London, UK
- 2011 Inherent Beauty, Museum-Gallery Kavadarci, Kavadarci, Macedonia
- 2010 Inherent Beauty, Public Room, Skopje, Macedonia
- 2009 Motectum, Gloucester Cathedral, Gloucester, UK
- 2008 We Are Shadows, Unit 2, Whitechapel, London, UK
- 2008 Butterflies in the Stomach, L'H du Siege, Valenciennes, France
- 2006 Time Stands Still, 1916 & 1991–2001, Kilmainham Gaol Museum, Dublin, Ireland
- 2002 re|sort, Fabrica Gallery, Brighton, UK
- 2001 Epidermis 2, Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow, UK
- 2001 Love Carpet, Hexham Art Centre, Hexham, UK
- 2001 Sweet Red (permanent), Nowton Park, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, UK
- 2001 Epidermis, Berwick Gymnasium Gallery, Berwick upon Tweed, UK
- 2000 WHO AM I, ArtSway, New Forest, UK
Selected group exhibitions
- 2012 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
- 2012 Skin and Texture, part of Art Lending Library, International Festival of Visual Arts, Market Gallery, Glasgow, UK
- 2012 DLUM Kavadarci, Macedonian Embassy, Paris, France
- 2011 Compulsive, Obsessive, Repetitive, Towner Gallery, Eastbourne, UK
- 2011 The Wish of the Witness, Pied à Terre, London, UK
- 2010 Heft: Weight and Touch in Contemporary Sculpture, The Gallery, Winchester Discovery Centre, Winchester, UK
- 2010 ArtChitecture, Artsway Contemporary Art Gallery, Sway, New Forest, UK
- 2010 Spitalfields Sculpture Prize, Allen & Overy, Bishops Square, London, UK
- 2009 Climate change = Cultural change, Swiss Embassy Gallery and the World Bank, Skopje, Macedonia
- 2010 Lastari, Cifte Amam, National Gallery of Macedonia, Skopje, Macedonia
- 2010 Creative inclusion: Scotland and Macedonia, Step Beyond Mobility, European Culture Foundation, Macedonia
- 2008 Around Photography, Brighton Photo Fringe Exhibition, Apec Studios, Brighton, UK
- 2008 Skin and Texture, UH Galleries, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK
- 2007 Meeting Place, Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth, UK
- 2007 Meeting Place, Text+Work, The Gallery, Arts Institute at Bournemouth, UK
- 2005 New Forest Pavilion, Palazzo Zenobio, 51st Venice Biennale, Italy
- 2005 Urban Condition, Meeting House Square, Temple Bar, Dublin, Ireland
- 2004 Crossovers Watershed II, Ecology Centre, Mile End Park, London, UK
- 2002 Jerwood Sculpture Prize, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland
- 2001 Jerwood Sculpture Prize, The Jerwood Gallery, London, UK
Publications
- The Berwick Gymnasium Fellowship: An Archival Record. Published by Art Editions North, 2008 (ISBN 978-0-9557478-1-6)
- Fabrica the First 10 Years. Published by Fabrica, 2007 (ISBN 978-0-9543380-2-2)
- Meeting Place: Contemporary Art and the Museum Collection. Published by The Arts Institute at Bournemouth, 2007 (ISBN 0905173953, 9780905173955)
- Arts in rural England: why the arts are at the heart of rural life. Published by Arts Council England, 2005 (ISBN 0-7287-1164-8)
- Deep Breathing. Published by Skopje: Skenpoint, 2001 (ISBN 9989-888-05-1)
- Jerwood Sculpture Prize. Published by Healeys Printers, 2001
- Compulsive, Obsessive, Repetitive. Published by Towner, 2011 (ISBN 978-1-871360-18-9)
- Inherent Beauty. Published by Public Room, Skopje, 2011 (ISBN 978-608-65222-0-9)
- Motectum. Published by University of Gloucestershire, 2009 (ISBN 978-1-86174-198-1)
- Climate change = cultural change. Published by Swiss Embassy Gallery and the World Bank, Skopje, Macedonia, 2009
- We Are Shadows. Published by Unit 2 Gallery, 2008
- Butterflies in the Stomach. Published by L’H du Siege, 2008
- land + the samling. Published by The Samling Foundation, 2001
- The New Forest Pavilion. Published by ArtSway, 2005
References
- Bristol Evening post
- IMMA
- Daily Express, '£30,000 for dead wood', Monday 16 August 2004
- Evening Post, 'We're rooting for Elpida', Tuesday 17 August 2004, p7
- Dnevnik, by Vesna I. Ilievska, January 2013
- Arts Council England, by South East, December 2012
- The Independent, by Alice Jones, September 2011
- The Wall Street Journal, by Bruce Palling, September 2011
- Arts Council England, by South West, October 2009
- AnOther, by Ananda Pellerin and Neil Wissink, October 2011
- New Scientist, by Kat Austen, September 2011
- Mutual Art, by Lauren Meir, October 2011
- The Guardian, by Hazel Davis, November 2009
- Utrinski Vesnik, by Katerina Bogoeva, November 2011
External links
- Official Artist’s website
- Alexandra Reinhardt Award
- Engage
- Venice Biennale
- Contemporary Art Society
- Gloucester Cathedral
- Motectum Exhibition at Gloucester Cathedral
- Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva at ArtSway
- a-n
- Axis
- Artist in Restaurant
- e-flux
- DACS