"Belgium actually happened by chance. I went there to study on an Erasmus programme and realised that the academy was at a very high world level. I was deeply impressed by the contemporary art, encountering works that I hadn't seen before in Bulgaria. That became my motivation to stay and complete my studies there. Afterwards, my whole career and success unfolded in Belgium. Perhaps I didn't get the attention in Bulgaria that would have encouraged me to return earlier and more often," Denitsa reflects.

It wasn't until the end of 2023 that she presented her work for the first time in Bulgaria, as part of the programme of the National Autumn Exhibitions in Plovdiv - a prestigious forum for contemporary Bulgarian visual arts.

Although trained as a painter, for the last ten years Todorova has devoted herself to what she considers the foundational aspect of all great painting - drawing. The exhibition 'Image on the Edge of Matter' introduces us to her characteristic drawings in graphite on thin paper, the technique that has caught the attention of the professional art community in Europe and earned her a number of prestigious drawing awards and nominations. In 2017, she received the STRABAG Artaward International, for which she was shortlisted among 800 artists. A few years earlier she was awarded the Ronse Drawing Prize, 2014 and 2015, an award that has a history of over 55 years.

"I was very inspired by a technique in sculpture called sgraffito - a technique for creating monumental murals in public spaces that was very popular in Eastern Europe in the middle of the last century, used extensively to decorate buildings - it can be seen on the facades of many buildings in Bulgaria. It consists of applying several layers of plaster of different colours, which are chiselled to create a relief. The shape is revealed through the contrast of colours. My technique is based on the idea of the film negative - I take a sheet of paper and rub it with graphic powder to make it very black, and then I start to gradually erase the black, looking for the light. That's how I build up my forms and that's my association with sgraffito," the artist tells BNR. 

She admits that for her, the whole process of painting is like an artistic performance, also inspired by her father, who was a sculptor. You can see for yourself in the video presentation of her exhibition in Plovdiv. 

"There is a strong tradition of drawing in Bulgaria, and nowadays there is a growing interest in it worldwide," Denitsa Todorova notes. "In fact, drawing has rarely been as widely represented in biennials, art fairs and exhibitions as it is today," the artist observes. She expresses her satisfaction that more and more artists are opting for this approach to creating art, and that more and more specialised forums are being organised around the world. 

The exhibition "Image on the Edge of Matter" will be on display at the Sarieva Gallery in Plovdiv until May 19th.