Desislava Unger initially studied painting at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia before moving to Vienna in 2005 to study under Professor Siegbert Schenk at the Akademie für Angewandte Kunst, where she graduated with honours from the master class for graphics and printing in 2010.

In a unique formal language, figurative and abstract elements meet, both intuitively and deliberately placed on the picture surface. Desislava Unger's oeuvre is characterised by great empathy and a keen sense of ambivalence. The central theme of her works is the artist's immediate surroundings. Meditative as well as playful narratives emerge. Image sequences that seem to have sprung from dreamlike worlds. Using sparing means, the artist succeeds in triggering emotions in the viewer and enables them to empathise with the mood of the events on display, even though the spaces and stories depicted do not exist in reality.

Another source of inspiration for Desislava Unger is nature as a place of longing and tranquillity. Depictions of nature refer to people and their desire for harmony and grounding. In the woodcut series ‘You can always be there’, this inner longing of man is given expression. The artist produces her woodcuts with great care and perfection, always in small editions, using a printing press made especially for her by her father.