Originally trained in fashion design, notably in the fashion department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Ognyana Teneva has found her preferred medium of expression in contemporary jewellery. Whether colourful crystalline creatures or bas-relief lace, she has created two stunning collections: ‘Transmogrification’ and ‘Olden days to come’. Neither quite mineral in appearance nor quite plant-like, at once heirs to the past and rooted in the present, her unique pieces are as light to wear as they are thought-provoking.
Ognyana Teneva is interested in the transformative potential of everyday materials. Plastic, which is ubiquitous and has a significant environmental impact, becomes, in her hands, a material worthy of reconsideration. Rather than treating it as waste, she explores its formal and sensory possibilities, seeking to give it a second life. The colours, the density of the elements, and the protruding interlacing patterns lend visual depth to her radical approach.
Ognyana Teneva uses plastic packaging waste from which she extracts basic shapes that can be replicated as often as she likes, following the principle of modular design. She assembles and reshapes these repetitive motifs with complete freedom.
Born in 1985 in Bulgaria, Ognyana Teneva obtained her bachelor’s degree in fashion design at the Free University of Varna ‘Chernorizets Hrabar’. Now based in Belgium, she continued her university studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, in the fashion department, supplemented by a day course at the jewellery design studio (KASKA-DKO), run by Annemie de Corte, Guy Claessens and Alix Hoornaert. Her creations have been featured at several contemporary jewellery festivals, notably in Belgium and China.
A permanent member of the Hectare gallery, she took part in the ‘Matières cueillies’ exhibition in 2024 alongside Charlotte Van de Velde, Isabelle Azaïs, Julie Decubber, Juliette Meme and Xinyi Chen.
View of the exhibition:
