Natalia Yudina was born in 1982 in Tomsk. She received her art education at Tomsk State University inthe Fine Arts Department and later graduated from the Institute of Contemporary Art named after IosifBakstein. At various times, she took part in projects by Anya Zhelud, including Recount (2008) and the artresidency of the nongallery Obochina.Her works have been exhibited at the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation, the Museum of Moscow, theRussian State Library, Gromov Cultural Center in St. Petersburg, the Centre for Fine Arts BOZAR(Belgium), Saatchi Gallery (United Kingdom), the Cultural Center “CK19,” the Krasnoyarsk MuseumCenter “Ploshchad Mira,” the Tomsk Regional Art Museum, the First Museum of Slavic Mythology, andthe Siberian Branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts / Pushkin State Museum.
The artist continues the trajectory of the Russian avant-garde of the 1910s, the nonconformist movement of the 1960s, and the Moscow romantic conceptualism of the 1970s through the lens of the color white. White here functions as a tabula rasa, echoing the experience of late modernism. This way of seeing through whiteness resonates with Quentin Meillassoux’s concept of correlationism — as if looking at the world through a snow veil, through the cold shroud of Isis, through a blizzard, a frozen block of ice, or through dim glass.
The artist is originally from Siberia. From here comes her unique cultural language of furs and hides — not as representation of place, but as an ontological condition. A human in fur is a return to Bibikhin’s “hairy human” (from the book Forest (hyle), 1997–1998) or to Nietzsche’s animal — the unfortunate Nietzschean creature belonging to no known species. This underlies the subversive beauty of her woolen sculpture Venus in Furs. Both Venus in Furs and Whiter Than White belong to her larger artistic project Terrible Siberian Dreams.
Siberia lies under the white snows of oblivion, resting quietly beneath a snowy shroud. It wraps itself in furs, warms itself with hides, grows hair, and covers itself with the cold veil of Isis.
Education:
Tomsk State University
Institute of Contemporary Art (I. Bakstein)
2021 — Terrible Siberian Dreams. Exhibition Storage, Siberian Branch of the Pushkin Museum (Tomsk)
2021 — Terrible Siberian Dreams, Tomsk Regional Art Museum (Tomsk)
2019 — The Nymph by the Fountain Has Gone, Siberian Branch of NCCA / ROSIZO / Pushkin Museum (Tomsk)
2017 — Lullaby, Siberian Branch of NCCA / ROSIZO / Pushkin Museum (Tomsk)
2017 — Terrible, Warm, Siberian Tales, Dukley Art Centre (Montenegro)
2017 — Terrible Siberian Dreams, Siberian Branch of NCCA / ROSIZO / Pushkin Museum (Tomsk)
2014 — My Kremlin, Gridchinhall Art Center (Moscow)
2014 — My Kremlin, Siberian Branch of NCCA / ROSIZO / Pushkin Museum (Tomsk)
2012 — 18+, Gridchinhall Art Center (Moscow)
Групповые выставки:
2024, 2023 — Winter, and Everything Feels New Again, Ekaterina Cultural Foundation. Curator: Igor Volkov, Department of Contemporary Art, Tretyakov Gallery. Moscow
2023 — Artists Remember Everything, Anniversary Pavilion for the 10th year of the Siberian Branch, NCCA / ROSIZO / Pushkin Museum. Tomsk State University
2020 — Siberian Ironic Conceptualism (sic), Krasnoyarsk Museum Center “Ploshchad Mira” (Krasnoyarsk)
2019, 2020 — Siberian Ironic Conceptualism (sic), Cultural Center CK19 (Novosibirsk)
2019 — The Twelfth Time Zone: Travel Notes from Russia, Not Moscow Project
2019 — Centre for Fine Arts BOZAR (Brussels, Belgium)
2018 — Le Salon, Ivanovo Hall, Russian State Library (Moscow)
2018 — Suite Russe, Galerie Stanislas Bourgain (Paris, France)
2018 — Tragedy in the Corner, Curatorial Project by Diana Machulina, Museum of Moscow (Moscow)
2017 — Nord Art, Art Residency (Germany)
2016, 2017 — Biryuchiy, International Contemporary Art Symposium
2012, 2011 — Art Riot: Post-Soviet Actionism, Saatchi Gallery (London, UK)
2008 — Recount, Curatorial Project by Anya Zhelud, Manege Central Exhibition Hall (St. Petersburg)
