Martina Yordanova is curator at The National Gallery, Sofia (since April 2020) and founder and artistic director of IATRUS Residency Program in the city of Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria.
Yordanova is also selection committee member and ambassador of Sofia Art Fair and founding member of Eastern Balkans Institute of Art and Architecture. She grew up between Bulgaria and Austria, received her BA and MFA in Publicity, Communication sciences and Media History from the University of Vienna, Austria in 2014.
Yordanova’s curatorial practice is consistently cross-disciplinary. At the National Gallery of Bulgaria aimed at promoting the collection of the museum, developing partnerships with other art institutions, producing, and sharing knowledge around Bulgarian and international contemporary art, she is in cbulgarharge of the curatorial department for contemporary art, onboarding and working closely with in- house and guest curators to develop educational and exhibition projects, commissioning artists for exclusive new artworks. Partnering with various institutions from the independent art scene in Bulgaria and on the Balkans, her curatorial practice facilitates navigating to the art environment locally and globally. Alongside her position as Curator at the National Gallery, she has founded IATRUS Residency program (2023), working towards building a sustainable new type of institution in the city of Veliko Tarnovo. In 2023 she has been the talk fellow of DAS (Dhaka Art Summit) in Bangladesh. She joined the National Gallery in 2020. Ever since she has curated and co-curated exhibitions such as The time has come to talk of many things… (2021/2022) with 37 artists from 21 countries;
MANIFESTATIONS OF ABUNDANCE (2021); Paradise Marsh by Maria Nalbantova (2024); The Ordinary Things by Lidija Delic at Institute of Contemporary Art (2022) among others. She has initiated exhibitions and realized large-scale commissions with artists Driant Zeneli (2026) Anton Vidokle (2025) Maria Nalbantova (2024), Boryana Rossa (2022). Egon van Herreweghe (2019) and Aldo Gianotti (2018).