statement

My work is an allegorical representation of our contemporary individual and social states.  What interests me most is our human duality and multi-faceted nature.  I seek to capture the coexistence of vulnerability and power, uncertainty and conviction, depravity and elevation in one and the same individual and/or society.  The figure or object in my images functions as an allegorical vehicle - a subtle but charged signifier for a suggested yet ultimately open-ended meaning.  The outer becomes emblematic of the inner, whether the outer representation reveals my subject's inner state and dissonance or my subject acts as a personification of an idea.  The iconography, formal decisions, and drawing and painting processes are closely intertwined to create subtle, incomplete signs with cognitive, sensual and emotive power intended to draw in the viewer and invite her or his attempt for interpretation.  

bio

born: 1978, Sofia, Bulgaria

education

Syracuse University, MFA, 2007
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2004
Interlochen Arts Academy, 1997

selected awards/honors

Dominican University Faculty Development Summer Research Grant, Dominican University, River Forest, IL, 2011  
Shaffer Fellowship in Fine Arts, School of Art and Design, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, 2005                  
Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant, Representational Art Grant, Montreal, CANADA, 2005, 2000 and 1997
Richard C. von Hess European Travel Prize, PAFA, Philadelphia, PA, 2002

selected publications

Book, International Painting Annual, Manifest Creative Research Gallery and Drawing     Center ˆ Manifest Press, volume 1, p. 133, 2011
International Drawing Annual, Manifest Creative Research Gallery and Drawing     Center ˆ Manifest Press, volume 5, pp. 133-135, 2011
Book, The Artist‚s Mother, Thomas Blisniewski, Elizabeth Sandmann, pp.110, 111, 2010
Love-Noise, Elizabeth Twiddy, Standing Stone Books, book cover, 2010

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Elena Peteva and Brett Eberhardt: Recent Works, two-person exhibition, Artists‚ House Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, 2011
Elena Peteva and Brett Eberhardt: Recent Works, two-person exhibition, Artists‚ House, Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, 2009               
Elena Peteva and Brett Eberhardt: Recent Works, two-person exhibition, Artists‚ House Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, 2008

selected group shows

Axis Gallery 6th National Juried Exhibition, Axis Gallery, Sacramento, CA, 2011
Tapped 2, national juried exhibition, Manifest Creative Research Gallery and Drawing Center, Cincinnati, OH, 2011
2009 PAFA Alumni invitational - Legacies, Museum of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 2009
Drawing from Perception VI, National Biennial Juried Exhibition, The Robert and Elaine Stein Galleries at Wright State University, Dayton, OH, 2009