Art is my life—
My dreams, my hopes, my escape route, my breath, my gift, my sweetest everything.
Beginning and end, chaos and harmony
All that I need, all that I want
The only thing always with me, the only thing which can`t hurt me.
Art can`t make me suffer, it only makes me happy
Art—it is in me and I am in it.

Bella Volen is a professional visual artist and has a masters gergee in painting. She works with different medias as cooks use different flavors. Her focus is mainly in painting, murals, photography based on human transformations through body painting, but she does also theatre art and book illustrations.

Bella has won many international body painting and fine art awards, lives in Vienna, Austria and works world wide as an artist and art instructor.

She comes from an established arts family in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, and was raised among painters, sculptors, dancers and poets.

Her natural talent was supported with thirteen years of formal study in some of the most prestigious art institutes including the fine arts secondary school and the Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia, followed by six and half years painting study in Vienna.

CURRICULUM VITAE

Bella Volen
Born in 1982 in Sofia, Bulgaria
Working and living in Vienna, Austria

Contact: www.bella-volen.com
e-mail: bella_paint@yahoo.com

Awards:

Pepsi Body Painting Award 2010- 1st prize

Shanghai Body Painting Champion 2009- 1st prize

Stockholm Body Painting Champion 2008– 1st prize

World Body Painting Fluoro Champion 2006 – 1st prize

Some facts:

Teacher at the World Body Painting Academy - body painting, composition, colour theory,history of body painting

Member of the World Body Painting Association and IG Bildende Kunst

Jury Member German Body Painting Festival 2010

Jury Member World Body Painting Festival 2009

Jury Member: Asian Bodypainting Awards - World Bodypainting Festival
Daegu / South Korea 2008

Jury Member: Milan Body Art Contest
Italy, 2008


Education:

1/2010 Diploma, master degree in painting

2003-2010 Study of painting at the University for Applied Arts, Vienna (Prof. Wolfgang
Herzig, Prof. Johanna Kandl, Prof. Heribert Just)

2002-2003 Study of graphic arts and printmaking techniques at the National Academy for
Fine Arts , Sofia, Bulgaria

2001-2002 Art course in drawing after the old masters (Prof. Katja Kostova and
Prof. Peter Chuklev)

April 2000 Art exchange at the City of Bath College, UK.

1996-2001 Ilia Petrov National High School for Fine Arts (special subject: painting),
Sofia, Bulgaria

1995-1996 Fine arts courses for drawing, painting and composition (Prof. Ganovski and
Reggio )

Exhibitions:

Solo echibitions:

1/2010 The Time Arrow, Mental & Physical Transformations, Diploma exhibition

1- 7/ 2005 Kapsh CarrierCom AG , Vienna, Austria

Group exhibitions:

6/2009 Essence 09, Vienna, Austria

11/2008 Art Advent Calender, City hall, Vienna, Austria

11/2008 Using Foto, Praterstrasse 15, Month of the photography, Vienna, Austria

4/ 2008 Bilder im Birkenwald, wirken bald, Praterstrasse 15, Vienna, Austria

11/2007 Sailing for the Olympics, Art Museum Tsing Tao, China

4/ 2007 Cross Borders, Masc Foundation /Vienna Austria

4/ 2007 The colors of Bulgaria, Museum Friedrichshof, Austria

6/ 2006 Essence 06, Mak Museum Vienna, Austria

6/ 2006 Q_Spectacle, Orth an der Donau, Austria

5/ 2006 Performaty Goes Business, Anorak,Vienna, Austria

3/ 2006 The Tree Of Life, Society of the Bulgarian Artists, Sofia, Bulgaria

7/2005 Body Painting Another Expression, Culture house, Seeboden, Austria

7/2005 Déjà Vu, Kunst Quartier Vienna, Austria

6/2005 Malstrom, University for Applied Arts Vienna, Austria

3/2003 Gallery Sais, Sofia, Bulgaria

12/2002 The Time, Society of the Bulgarian Artists, Sofia (13 works included), Bulgaria

6/2001 Diploma exhibition, Sofia, Bulgaria

5/2001 National home of the Culture Sofia, Bulgaria

6/2000 Euro-Bulgarian Culture Centre, Sofia, Bulgaria

4/2000 The Lighthouse and the Storm, Bath, England

3/1999 Sofia City Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria

5/1998 Gallery X-S, Sofia, Bulgaria

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