Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva


Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva 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, 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 and precious metals.

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, and Spitalfields Sculpture Prize.

Residencies and commissions

Hadzi-Vasileva was Artist in Restaurant at the Michelin-starred restaurant, Pied a Terre, London. Other Artist in Residence awards have included mima, Middlesbrough, Gloucester Cathedral, The Irish Museum of Modern Art, The Berwick Gymnasium Fellowship and ArtSway. She was commissioned by Bristol City Council to develop permanent work, Transpire for St. Bede's Catholic College in Bristol, and Road to Nowhere, a temporary work commissioned by The Samling Foundation for Kielder Forest, Northumberland. Other public art commissions have included Raison d'être, a permanent commission for Southgate Shopping Centre, in Bath; We Are Shadows at Unit2, London; Life Cycle at Knowle West Health Part, Bristol; Re|Sort at Fabrica Gallery, Brighton; and Ambush at Rhinefield Ornamental Drive, the New Forest.

Education