Ina Vasileva (b. 1981) earned her PhD from the Department of Fashion at the National Academy of Arts in 2017. The themes explored in her dissertation opened new fields for her work within contemporary art.
At the core of her work lie the essence of the object, material desire, aesthetics, and the mechanisms of constructing value. Ina Vasileva’s elegant and impactful works create a prism through which contemporary gender politics, beauty, and consumerism can be re-evaluated. Her post-feminist artistic practice encompasses sculpture, performance, installation, and painting, often utilizing materials and processes associated with Early Conceptualism, Pop Art, and Minimalism.
Her diverse practice includes a wide range of media and references—clothing, accessories, and cosmetics, drawing, and painting, as well as references to icons of contemporary art. In her objects, she emphasizes the cult of the surface and female beauty, while the interaction between social gender expectations and the visual language of her works questions the very boundaries of femininity.
In 2018, Ina Vasileva and artist Yonko Vasilev united as partners in life and in their creative journey, forming the artistic duo YOKO+INA. The duo functions as a conceptual platform for contemporary art, within which the two authors explore the interaction between the object and visual culture. Their collaboration continued until the death of Yonko Vasilev in 2023, after which Ina Vasileva continued her artistic practice independently under the name Ina Vasileva – INA.
Her works have been presented in numerous exhibitions in Bulgaria and abroad. Among her more significant projects are Alchemy of Love at the Bulgarian Cultural Center in Moscow, Russia (2007), Tradition and Modernity – International Festival of Contemporary Art, Manege, Moscow, Russia (2007), Matriarchy & Objects at Fridge Gallery, Sofia (2012), A Dress Can Form a Reality – video performance at Bulgaria Mall, Sofia (2013), Public Photoshoot – fashion performance at Antrakt Gallery, Sofia (2014), Social Archetypes – fashion action in the city park, Yambol (2016), and Soft at Arosita Gallery, Sofia (2019). She participated in the international projects A Little Of This, A Little Of That at ART4 Gallery, Dubai, and Art Around Us at the Foundation of Art and Culture, Bhopal, India (2020). In the following years, she presented joint projects with Yonko Vasilev: Objects & Objective Painting at Credo Bonum Gallery, Sofia (2021), YES at DOZA Gallery, Sofia (2022), and New Action Painting / Connecting Drops at INTRO Gallery, Sofia (2023), as well as Contemporary versus Design at DOZA Gallery, Sofia (2025). Her more recent projects include the joint exhibition with Deyan Valkov TRESOR (2024), and her solo project Perfect Existence at One Gallery, Sofia (2026).
