Elena Peteva was born in Sofia, Bulgaria and lives in Dartmouth, MA. She draws and paints figures “to capture the coexistence of vulnerability and power, uncertainty and conviction, depravity and elevation in one and the same individual and/or society.” Peteva received her C.F.A in painting from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and a M.F.A from Syracuse University.
She has exhibited her work throughout the US including: the Museum of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; Fort Wayne Museum of Art; Manifest Creative Research Gallery and Drawing Center; Arnot Art Museum; Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts; and numerous commercial and non-profit art galleries.
Her work has been included in a number of public and private collections, including the Graphic Arts Collection at Princeton University and the Permanent Collection of the Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts as well as art publications such as International Drawing Annual 5 and 7, International Painting Annual 1 by Manifest Press, and The Artist’s Mother book by Thomas Blisniewski.
She is a recipient of three Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grants for representational art, a Leslie and Frances Posey Foundation grant, and a Shaffer Fellowship in Fine Arts. Peteva is currently an Assistant Professor at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.