Martinova is a London based artist born in Bulgaria in 1983. She graduated from Central Saint Martins with an MA in Photography in 2015. Before moving to London, she studied Statisitics, Graphic Design and Photography in Turkey and Czech Republic.
Albena Martinova is fascinated by the narrative components of fairytales, myths and their paradoxical logic that transcends beyond the boundaries of common sense. Theory of sense being inseparable from paradoxes, enables her to replicate herself as a dismantled self which is proliferated and transformed. She explores her selves to be in-be- tween with no fixed identity, forever decentered and out-of-the-way.
There is an instant in time she cannot tell whether it is too long or too short; an instant which makes her think about the skin she lives in. Her wondrous experience of wraps of memory and perception creates metamorphic characters while she is slipping in between realty and imagination. Her bodies are no longer unified but split and doubled. She is now dislocated in time and space. It is a disembodiment, a dream replacement, a true psychic travel.

EDUCATION

2013-2015 Master of Arts in Photography, Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, London, UK 2008-2012 Bachelors Degree in Photography, Dokuz Eylul University Faculty of Fine Arts, Photography Department, Izmir, Turkey (Top Scoring Graduating Student of Photography Department, Best Graduation Project Prize of Photography Department)
2007 – 2008 Tomas Bata University, Faculty of Multimedia Communication Advertising Photography and Graphic Design Department, Zlin, Czech Republic
2006-2008 Graphic Design, Yasar University Vocational School Department of Graphic Design, Izmir, Turkey 2004 – 2006 Yasar University, Science and Literature Faculty Department of Statistics, Izmir, Turkey

SOLO EXHIBITION

2020 Dismentled Self, Vision Art Platform, 42 Maslak, Istanbul, Turkey
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2015 New Weapons, Blitz, Valletta, Malta
2015 Central Saint Martins
2015 Degree Show, Kings Cross, London, UK
2014 Tomorrow: Today, Bargehouse, OXO Tower Wharf, London, UK
2013 Anti Bodies, The Street, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London, UK
2012 Top Graduating Projects Exhibition, Dokuz Eylul University, Department of Fine Arts, Izmir Turkey,
2011 First Turkey Childrens’ Rights Congress Exhibition, Istanbul,
2011 Izmir Photographic Art Association, Annual Exhibition, Izmir, Turkey
2010 Izmir Photographic Art Association, Traditional Exhibitions, Izmir, Turkey