Biography

Spas Dochev was born in the village of Terziisko, near Troyan — a region of craftsmen where skill and respect for material are passed from one generation to the next. He completed the Technical School of Ceramics and Glass in Sofia, specialising in decoration, and was admitted on his first attempt to the National Academy of Arts in the programme of Decorative-Monumental Sculpture — one of eight students chosen from 117 candidates. He studied under Prof. Dimitur Daskalov, one of Bulgaria's leading monumental sculptors and the author of the Hristo Botev monument in Kalofer.

From 1978 to 1993 he worked at the Regional Historical Museum in Lovech, heading its art department. From 1993 to 2016 he served as director of the "Prof. Theofan Sokerov" Art Gallery in Lovech, turning it into one of the most active centres for contemporary art in northern Bulgaria. He is a member of the Union of Bulgarian Artists. His works belong to the collections of the National Gallery, the Sofia City Art Gallery and the Ministry of Culture.

He works in bronze, stone, wood and local Troyan ceramic clay — alternating monumental figures for public spaces with chamber-scale, almost intimate forms. He is the author of monuments and sculptural works in Lovech, Troyan, Orlyane, Apriltsi, Lesidren and Terziisko. At the centre of his practice stands the human figure — not as portrait, but as an opportunity for stillness, balance and presence. More than thirty of his works have been donated to charitable causes. Today he works from his studios in Lovech and Terziisko, letting the material dictate part of the decisions.