From Plovdiv to Dubai: The Story Behind Radka Gicheva’s Abstract Paintings

I was born on the 1st of June in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. I remember picking up a paintbrush at five, possibly earlier, and I have not really put it down since. For most of my childhood I taught myself.

Between 2003 and 2006 I took proper lessons at Studio Chaushev in Plovdiv’s Old Town. The teaching was traditional: drawing before painting, and plaster casts before live subjects. One survivor of those years, a drawing of a gypsum head from 2004, still sits in my studies and sketches. It is not for sale, but it shows where the discipline behind the abstract work comes from.

In 2005, while still attending the studio, I began a Master’s degree in Geodesy at UACEG, the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy in Sofia, and graduated in 2010. Geodesy is the science of measuring the earth: angles, distances and levels, checked and re-checked until the errors close.

It sounds like the opposite of intuitive painting, but five years of measurement gave me habits I still use at the easel. I check a painting from across the room the way you check a survey from a second station: a mistake invisible up close is obvious from a distance. And I am comfortable with tolerance: a layer does not have to be perfect, it has to sit within the range the next layer can correct.

In May 2017 I became a member of the Dubai International Art Centre (DIAC), and that date is the real start of my life as an exhibiting artist. Within weeks I had work in the members’ show ‘Celebrating Ramadan’ at Gallery 76.

I enrolled in DIAC’s oil painting classes, which I attended from 2017 to 2020, and in 2019 I added the abstract and mixed media classes that changed the direction of my work. Oil taught me patience with colour; mixed media taught me to build texture before paint.

The centre also gave me my first recognition: a DIAC Merit Award at the 62nd Members’ Art Exhibition in November 2017, and a second at the 64th Members’ Art Exhibition in November 2019.

Before abstraction took over, I painted what most students paint: landscapes, still life, flowers and animals. I have kept a few of those works in the gallery because they explain the abstract ones.

Trees (2019) is a 30 x 20 cm acrylic on canvas from my oil-class years, one of the landscapes, priced at $200. Flowers in a Vase, also 30 x 20 cm, is mixed media rather than straight acrylic, and you can already see texture creeping into a traditional floral subject. It is $310, unframed.

The Zebra, painted in January 2020, is the hinge between the two halves of my practice: a 22 x 27 cm acrylic on cotton canvas with bold black stripes against luminous greens, warm neutrals and soft pastels, cropped so close that the pattern becomes almost abstract. It is framed, ready to hang and $150. More are in the animal paintings.

From 2020 the exhibitions moved beyond the art centre. After a solo exhibition with Arte Market in December 2020, I showed at World Art Dubai at the Dubai World Trade Centre in April 2021, and that November I had a solo exhibition at Pottery Barn in the Dubai Mall.

2023 brought ‘The Showroom by DIPR’ at the Anantara Downtown hotel in September and, in October, ‘Global Expressions: A Fusion of Cultures in Art’, organised by DIAC and held at the Embassy of India in Abu Dhabi. In September 2024 I exhibited in ‘I am PEACE’, the group exhibition of the Global Peace Conference at the Etisalat Academy Auditorium in Muhaisnah, Dubai.

Two entries on my exhibition list happened in a furniture store, and I value them highly. In March 2022 I was artist in residence at La Brocante DXB, and in February 2025 I returned for a solo exhibition, again titled ‘Artist in residence’, at La Brocante in Al Quoz.

A furniture showroom is a more honest place to see a painting than a white gallery wall: the work hangs above real sofas, at the height people actually hang things, in daylight and lamplight, so visitors can judge scale and colour against the room they are furnishing.

Between December 2019 and December 2020 I painted live at five events organised by Art4You Gallery, Funun Arts and their partners: a Christmas session at the Sheraton Sharjah Beach Resort & Spa (28 December 2019), ‘HOPE’ at Dubai Creek Park (17 January 2020), ‘Be Mine Valentine’ at the Cassells Hotel in Al Barsha (14 February 2020), the Fine Arts Festival in Ras Al-Khaimah (21 February 2020) and ‘Time to Hope & be Joyful’ at the Novotel DWTC (26 December 2020).

Painting in front of people with a time limit leaves no room to fuss; you find out quickly which decisions you make by habit and which by looking. In November 2022 I ran my own workshop, ‘Express your feelings through Art’, on the same idea: start with a feeling rather than a subject and let the materials do some of the talking.

Dubai changed my palette before it changed anything else. The desert, the sea and the older parts of the city supply tones I did not grow up with: sand, rust, ochre, bleached white, deep turquoise, and gold used without apology.

Arabian Treasures (2020), the painting at the top of this post, is the clearest example: 40 x 30 cm, 2 cm deep, framed and priced at $350. The first layer is gesso with sea shells and pieces of fabric, and the paint is built up in several layers over that relief, so the shades and highlights follow textures laid down before any colour was chosen. I painted it entirely by intuition, thinking about the richness of Arabian culture rather than any single object.

Desert Vibes (2022) is a framed 42 x 30 cm mixed media work at $280, built by layering, erasing and rediscovering earlier marks until the surface behaves a little like weathered ground. Arabian Beauty (2025) is the largest and most recent of the three: 80 x 80 cm and 4 cm deep, acrylic and plaster on a deep canvas that hangs unframed, priced at $1,800. The rest of the abstract collection is online, and the abstract art in Dubai page explains why this kind of work suits rooms here.

The materials have stayed consistent for years: acrylics, inks, soft and oil pastels, with recycled materials, fabrics and household items pressed into the first layers for texture. Every finished piece is signed on the front and back, sealed with two coats of varnish and leaves the studio with a Certificate of Authenticity. The step-by-step version is in how my textured mixed media paintings are made.

The most complete view is the online gallery, where every available painting is listed with dimensions, medium and price in US dollars. If you are in Dubai, studio visits are by appointment: send me a message with the pieces you are interested in and a couple of times that suit you.

Delivery within the UAE takes one to three business days and is free on orders over $500, with hand delivery available in Dubai. Gallery pieces can be returned within 30 days of delivery. Commissions start at around $600 (about AED 2,200) for roughly 40 x 50 cm, with a 50% deposit, a progress photo midway and a typical turnaround of two to four weeks; the commissions page explains the process in full.

Taken from my education and exhibition records; the full list is on the about page.

• 1 June, Plovdiv, Bulgaria: born; first paintbrush at around five
• 2003–2006: art lessons at Studio Chaushev, Old Town, Plovdiv
• 2005–2010: Master’s in Geodesy, UACEG, Sofia
• May 2017: member of the Dubai International Art Centre; oil classes 2017–2020
• November 2017: DIAC Merit Award, 62nd Members’ Art Exhibition
• 2019: abstract and mixed media classes at DIAC; November 2019: second DIAC Merit Award
• December 2019 – December 2020: five live art events in Sharjah, Dubai and Ras Al-Khaimah
• April 2021: World Art Dubai; November 2021: solo exhibition at Pottery Barn, Dubai Mall
• March 2022: artist in residence, La Brocante DXB; November 2022: workshop ‘Express your feelings through Art’
• September 2023: Anantara Downtown; October 2023: Embassy of India, Abu Dhabi; September 2024: Global Peace Conference
• February 2025: solo exhibition ‘Artist in residence’, La Brocante, Al Quoz