Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva (born 1971,

Kavadarci Kavadarci ( mk, Кавадарци ) is a town in the Tikveš region of North Macedonia. In the heart of North Macedonia's wine country, it is home to the largest winery in Southeast Europe, named after the Tikveš plain. The town of Kavadarci i ...

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...

) is a Macedonian-born artist based in

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

, 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 The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

in 2013, with Ana Frangovska, curator at the

National Gallery of Macedonia The National Gallery (Macedonian: Национална галерија, ) is a national art museum of North Macedonia in the Old Bazaar, located in the capital city of Skopje. Its permanent collection is housed in the 15th century Turkish Bath ...

. Hadzi-Vasileva attended the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

, London and the

Glasgow School of Art The Glasgow School of Art (GSA; gd, Sgoil-ealain Ghlaschu) is a higher education art school based in Glasgow, Scotland, offering undergraduate degrees, post-graduate awards (both taught and research-led), and PhDs in architecture, fine art, and ...

, Glasgow, Scotland.

Work

Hadzi-Vasileva is a site specific

installation Installation may refer to: * Installation (computer programs) * Installation, work of installation art * Installation, military base * Installation, into an office, especially a religious (Installation (Christianity) Installation is a Christian l ...

artist who works across the varied media of sculpture,

, 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 The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the management of publicly owned forests and the regulation of both public and private forestry in England. The Forestry Commission was previously also respon ...

. 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 Watercress or yellowcress (''Nasturtium officinale'') is a species of aquatic flowering plant in the cabbage family Brassicaceae. Watercress is a rapidly growing perennial plant native to Europe and Asia. It is one of the oldest known leaf ve ...

) 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 Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

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

by the national Assembly of Kavadarci, Macedonia. She was also selected to represent Macedonia at the 55th

in 2013. She was recipient of the

Pollock-Krasner Foundation The Pollock-Krasner Foundation was established in 1985 for the purpose of providing financial assistance to individual working artists of established ability. It was established at the bequest of Lee Krasner, who was an American abstract expression ...

award in 2002, was shortlisted for the

Jerwood Sculpture Prize The Jerwood Sculpture Prize was launched in 2001 as an initiative of the Jerwood Foundation. This commissioning prize aims to give support to emerging talent within the medium of outdoor sculpture. Since the inaugural Prize, the intention has been t ...

(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,

(2013),

Gloucester Cathedral Gloucester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Peter and the Holy and Indivisible Trinity, in Gloucester, England, stands in the north of the city near the River Severn. It originated with the establishment of a minster dedicated to S ...

(2008–2009),

The Irish Museum of Modern Art The Irish Museum of Modern Art ( ga, Áras Nua-Ealaíne na hÉireann) also known as IMMA, is Ireland's leading national institution for the collection and presentation of modern and contemporary art. Located in Kilmainham, Dublin, the Museum pr ...

(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 Kielder Forest is a large forestry plantation in Northumberland, England, surrounding Kielder village and the Kielder Water reservoir. It is the largest man-made woodland in England with three-quarters of its covered by forest. The majority ...

, Northumberland. Other public art commissions have included ''Raison d'être'' (2010–2013), a permanent commission for

Southgate Shopping Centre Southgate Shopping Centre is a large shopping centre in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is located in Southgate (just west of Mondeor) and is one of the ten largest shopping centres in South Africa, with over 160 commercial tenants. The centre ...

, in

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

; ''We Are Shadows'' (2008) at Unit2, London; ''Life Cycle'' (2004) at Knowle West Health Part,

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

; ''Re, Sort'' (2002) at Fabrica Gallery,

; and ''Ambush'' (2000) at Rhinefield Ornamental Drive,

the New Forest The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England, covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror, featu ...

References

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 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

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
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hadzi-Vasileva, Elpida 1971 births Living people British sculptors Macedonian sculptors British women sculptors Installation artists Macedonian contemporary artists Artists from Brighton Alumni of the Royal College of Art People from Kavadarci British people of Macedonian descent Macedonian emigrants to the United Kingdom Macedonian women sculptors 21st-century women artists