The Eastern Daily Press has teamed up with the Urban Art Store to award one NUA student the chance to display their work at the upcoming Under the Stalls art show. Here we take a closer look at one of the finalists
With a unique aesthetic and philosophy, Kristina Bandramalieva’s work intertwines elements of realism and illustration to evoke childlike imagination and happiness.
"My latest and my largest piece to date, which is added below, is what I would be excited to exhibit as it has garnered a lot of attention and positive feedback as I had briefly exhibited it at university."
"My work features my own personal philosophy that happiness and wonder is the most important thing to society. As the wound seems to be getting darker and darker with cruelty I strongly believe that all we can do is fight it back with childlike happiness in order to preserve who we are and what we value."
Striving to spread joy through her work, Ms Bandramalieva integrates a sense of playfulness and lightheartedness.
"I am drawn to the idea of making people happy through my art and making them laugh at what they see. I love the idea of human happiness."
"If I make them smile just a little bit that would be the greatest achievement for me. Happiness is one of the strongest emotions we possess and I believe that if I can evoke that in somebody my art is successful in its job."
Her journey as an artist, however, has not been without trials.
"Finding my specific art style that suits my narrative has been especially challenging in a world so saturated with social media where nothing seems to be original anymore. I needed my artistic language to portray my theme as best as possible in order to be effective, which I made possible by trying out different variations and carefully examining the reactions of the viewers."
Significant support along her journey came from her A-level art teachers, who granted her absolute freedom to animate her ideas and to delve deep into her creative curiosity.
"The biggest influence has definitely been my A level art teachers due to the freedom they gave me to experiment and try out my ideas. Coming from a strictly art academic background where the only thing valued was skill it definitely set my ideas on fire and set my curiosity on fire."
"For someone coming from a different country, trying to establish connections is overwhelming. That is why this opportunity would really mean the world in terms of getting my art seen and recognized. The opportunity of getting to meet established people in industry that I have admired since the beginning would be nothing short of mesmerizing."
"Getting to meet people who also deeply love art and share ideas with them is the most exciting aspect to me of this opportunity. I’ve never really had a community of artists up until now and getting a taste for the first time would be more than amazing."
"This opportunity is something I rarely encounter as many galleries are not willing to work with probably lesser-known artists let alone young students. The fact that a gallery of this caliber is willing to give this possibility sets it aside as from the majority in giving a voice to somebody trying to start their career."
"I hope to be able to collaborate as I want to explore the world of film production while I utilize my skills as a fine artist. I simply want to try everything that is available to me in order to try out every opportunity."
"Recently I tried to develop a style of my own that involved shining a light through a preexisting painting in order to emphasize my theme of happiness being hope. That was done on smaller pieces as it is still in its experimentation stage and that scaling allows me to work simultaneously on two pieces."
"Into what future opportunities I’ll dive into next I am not sure as I am quite focused on producing work at the moment. However, more events like this would do wonders in developing my career."
Ms Bandramalieva is currently an independent artist based in Norwich, hailing from Rochester Independent College background.
Her portfolio before university demonstrates an array of achievements.
She has had an official solo exhibition of original work at Burgas, Bulgaria NESI Gallery 2023.
CIFE (Council for Independent Education) second prize in the Arts department, and a few smaller features in exhibitions.
Scoring two A* on her A Levels the artist threw herself into different opportunities of independent work.
Some of them being illustrations for a children’s book, poster for a film directed by a Semi‑Finalist of the Big Fridge International Film Festival 2025 and graphics work for a Rotterdam School of Management student group.
That alongside being elected as a student representative of Fine Arts and a founder of a university society.
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