Elica Tabakova was born in Bulgaria and studied architecture at the University of Hanover. She received an Erasmus scholarship for the Academy of Fine Arts in Seville and graduated in June 2011. She then taught at the Faculty of Painting and Graphic Arts in Hanover and, since 2019, at the Faculty of Architecture and Design in Constance.

To advance her career, she now lives and works in Munich as an architect and freelance artist.

Elica Tabakova
Of course, it is the line that dominates Elica Tabakova's paintings. It runs through her works as a shaky stroke, an ink surface, or a fine line. The artist and architect has a special sense for contour and construction, for lightness and heaviness in space. Overhead lines and cranes stand here alongside photo snippets of archways and cloisters.

Her pictures bear witness to the inner landscape that has emerged from the dialogue with the architectural constructions. Melancholy is sublimated into movement when the contours of houses flow or tilt to the side as if they were alive. Color recedes into the background in many of her works. It is used sparingly and does not compete with the dominant black lines. The black ink and black charcoal paint is sometimes applied opaquely, sometimes in a grayish, cloudy manner. This is often complemented by opaque white and, at most, a little ochre or yellow. One exception is the flat, expressive red of the geisha and samurai.

»Her images bear witness to the inner landscape that has emerged from her dialogue with architectural structures. Melancholy is sublimated into movement as the contours of houses flow or tilt to the side as if they were alive. Color recedes into the background in many of her works. It is used sparingly and does not compete with the dominant black lines. The black ink and black charcoal paint is sometimes applied opaquely, sometimes in a grayish, cloudy manner. This is often complemented by opaque white and, at most, a little ochre or yellow. An exception is the flat, expressive red of the Geisha and Samurai series. It acts as a symbol of the strength of the woman warrior.
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Dr. Martina Kollroß