Born in Ulaan Ude, Buryatia (2001). Yuma Radne started painting from an early age and enrolled in an art school from the age of 5. Having started developing her own style, she began having her first appearance in local newspapers as a teenager. When Yuma was 16, she dropped out of school and began painting full-time. Radne held her first solo show at the National Museum of Buryatia in 2018, being 17, and soon after she moved to Saint Petersburg to study monumental painting in Shtiglitz Academy. In 2019 the artist had rejected the traditional way of education there and flew to Austria, where she studied painting in the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. After living there for almost 5 years, she did an exchange year at Slade School of Art, and stayed in London after that. Lives and works in London.
How has your Buryat heritage shaped your identity and influenced your perspective as an artist, particularly given the history of Buryatia in Siberia?
I get asked this question a lot, but every time there is something new I can think of. As a young girl in Buryatia, I noticed how underrepresented we are. From what we had, most of the buryat art I saw at that time was too ethnic, souvenir-ish, you know, these kind of paintings of a man on a horse, next to a yurt in a steppe. I had something to say and I wanted to express it. Like, look, I'm a girl, living in a city, not in a yurt anymore. But I still do have the braids and the beautiful traditional jewellery, can I show something honest and present? My older sister played a big role at that time, she is a sociologist and she was doing a research on buryat identity back when I was a teen. It showed me a new perspective on these things, so I thought I was doing my own research.
You studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna for many years. Which artists or movements influenced you most during that time? As your work often features multiple figures and narrative scenes reminiscent of genre painting, yet they exist within unfamiliar and fantastical worlds.
Haha, I studied there for 5 years, yes. One of the first artists I discovered in Vienna (who are not particularly austrian) were Franz von Stuck, Odilon Redon, Ernst Fuchs, Nicki de Saint Phalle, Maria Lassnig. I have always been into magical stuff, I have very vivid dreams and memories, you see.
Where do you find inspiration for the characters and otherworldly beings that populate your paintings?
Only a few times I met them in dreams. Usually I don't know where they come from, I just sit down and sketch something with an empty head and my hand just creates them. Yes, my childhood memories, mongolian myths and legends affect it, but I don't know to what extend, if I make a character with bread for horns or a garlic dress.
(Left) Yuma Radne - Fantasy is to be seen | (Right) Yuma Radne - Through wavy fog
The works you contributed to the International Women’s Day Auction differ from your usual style, yet they retainthe same ephemeral qualities that appear throughout your practice. Can you walk us through these pieces?
It's nice to do something different. For these pieces I used ink, oil and glitter, which is a new combination for me. One piece is more abstract and magical, and the one with the hands is from a sketch I actually applied in a different painting and would like to use that pose again. It's so funny, how she is looking at something through her hands being in this shape of glasses, she is not holding a binocle. Maybe her hands ARE a binocle?
The theme of this International Women’s Day accelerate action campaign is ‘Give to Gain,’ encouraging a mindset of generosity and collaboration – can you talk about how and if this resonates with you?
“Give to Gain” resonates with me because generosity and collaboration are essential to building meaningful communities. As a woman and a feminist, I’m proud to take part in this campaign. For me, gender equality is not a fixed goal but an ongoing practice, sustained through everyday choices and continuous attention.
Do you have any projects on the horizon that you would like to share?
London people, please come see the show at Tiderip gallery, in Battersea, where I will be showing in March!
Visit Yuma's Website
Questions by Victoria Lucas
