Artist Yuliya Lanina

Yuliya Lanina is an interdisciplinary artist whose work bridges traditional media with new technologies. She creates alternate realities in her works—ones based on sexuality, trauma and identity.

Lanina has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally, including Elizabet Ney Museum (Austin, TX, 2023), Rabotaroom (Milan, Italy, 2023), MuseumsQuartier Wien (Vienna, Austria, 2021), SXSW Interactive (Austin, TX, 2019), Cleveland Institute of Art (Cleveland, OH, 2013), State Museum of Modern Art (Moscow, Russia, 2012), Patrick Heide Gallery (London, UK, 2011), SIGGRAPH Asia (Yokohama, Japan, 2009), Beijing Biennial (Beijing, China, 2009), Seoul Art Museum (Seoul, Korea, 2006). Her 2022 solo show at Xposed gallery on New York’s High Line was viewed by more than 1,000 people per day over four weeks.

Lanina's performances have been featured in OUTSider Festival (2020, 2021), Teatro Santa Ana (San Miguel De Allende, Mexico, 2019), Blanton Museum of Art (Austin, TX, 2019), Creative Tech Week (NY, NY, 2019), TURN UP Multimedia (Tucson, AZ, 2019), SEAMUS National Conference (Eugene, OH, 2018), and Fusebox Festival (Austin, TX, 2016).

The screening venues for her animations include Austrian Film Museum (Vienna, Austria, 2022), Project Arts Centre (Lithuania, 2019), Le Carreau du Temple (Paris, France, 2018), Museum of Contemporary Art (North Miami, FL, 2012), El Museo Cultural, (Santa Fe, NM, 2010), Museum Ludwig (Germany, 2007), and Global Art & Moving Images Awards, Strata Foundation, Pinsiö, Finland (2013).

Lanina’s most recent animation "Gefilte Fish" won Best International Short Film at Tamuz Shomron Film Festival (Israel, 2024) and an Honorable Mention at the Female Eye Film Festival (Toronto, Canada 2023). Lanina’s professional honors include fellowships and scholarships from Artpace International Art Residency (SA, 2023), Fulbright (Vienna, Austria, 2020), The Puffin Foundation (NJ, 2019), Marble House Project (Vermont, 2017), Headlands Art Center (CA, 2013), Yaddo (NY, 2022, 2011) and CORE Cultural Funding Program (Austin, TX, 2014-2022).

Recent speaking engagements include Pomona College (Claremont, CA, 2023), panel discussion on intergenerational trauma led by research scientist on war and democracy Daniela Ingruber of the Sigmund Freud Museum (Vienna, Austria, 2022), United Nations Human Rights Office (2021), The University of Applied Arts (Vienna, Austria, 2021), GIFF (San Miguel De Allende, Mexico, 2022) and SXSW Interactive (Austin, TX, 2019).

Lanina’s work was featured on the front cover of Austin Chronicle (2023) weekly newspaper and reviewed in The Forward (2022), Glasstire (2020), Houston Press (2016), Australian Art Review (2010), Brooklyn Rail (2006), Art ReView (2001), Bloomberg News (2007), Beijing Today (2006) and other publications. Yuliya was listed among the “top 10 artists in NYC now” by Revolt Magazine and received an honorable citation from the New York State Assembly in 2013. An essay about her work is forthcoming in the scholarly journal Feminist Studies.

Lanina’s collaborative projects, for which she created visuals to be displayed alongside performances by dancers or musicians, have been presented at Kronos Quartet’s Festival (2021), San Diego Museum of Art (CA, 2018), National Museum the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania (Lithuania, 2015), Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Series, National Sawdust (Brooklyn, NY, 2015) and the New Museum Festival (NY, NY, 2010). Her collaborators included performers like Kronos Quartet and violinist Johnny Gandelsman; composers Nina C. Young, José Martínez, Vladimir Rannev, Russell Pinkston, Sam Lipman and Yevgeniy Sharlat; choreographers Caron Eule and Andrea Ariel.

Lanina holds an MFA in Combined Media from Hunter College and a BFA in Painting and Drawing from SUNY Purchase College. She is currently Assistant Professor of Practice at the Department of Arts and Entertainment Technologies at The University of Texas at Austin.

"I intend to bring a dissonant charge to the work I create. Playful and quirky on the exterior, my work uses whimsy as a device to draw closer inspection. Through my work, I examine the relationship between absurdity, sexuality, and trauma with a particular focus on physical and psychic reconstruction through reassembling disparate parts. Though I use various mediums: works on paper, animation, mechanical sculpture and performances, my theme is always consistent -- stitching together the fragments of traumatized consciousness. My process is intuitive. I let the subconscious take the lead. I leave analytical thinking behind and embrace the nonsensical and surprising. Stemming from my specific experiences, my work aims to speak to the nature of being, to the heart as well as intellect, to make difficult topics accessible and to facilitate healing."

Tell us a little about yourself (where you are from) and your background in the arts.

I was born and raised in Moscow, Russia. Growing up I studied music, but when I moved to New York at age 17, drawing became my main refuge. Since then, I have embraced expression in both image and sound to make sense of life's complexities.

I have degrees in painting and drawing from SUNY-Purchase and mixed media from Hunter College and have been a practicing artist for over 20 years. My creative practice spans over many mediums -- painting, mechanical sculpture, animation, installation, performance. Telling stories is at the root of my process, stories based on personal experience and delving into the topics of loss, fragmentation, gender identity, sexual violence.

I started as a painter, so painting is always the first step in all of my projects, however I push the medium of painting into new directions, as they become the basis of animations and mechanical sculptures.

Ten years ago, I started performing alongside my work, both with projections and paintings, sometimes transforming myself into the characters that I create. Performance adds an additional layer of vulnerability and connection to the viewer, which are very important to me.

What kind of work are you currently making?

I love working on lots of different projects at once. Currently, I am working on a series of paintings delving into themes of gender, aging, and mortality. These series are influenced by my personal experience as I approach the age at which my mother died after a long battle with cancer. I am also working on an immersive video projection for a ballet in collaboration with choreographer Dorothy O’Shea Overbey and composer Sam Lipman.

Two other projects are in development: a public art project for the City of Austin which will be installed in the Fall of 2024 and a series of interactive music paintings which blend sound, painting and interactivity to captivate audiences in new and exciting ways. I am also writing a series of short autobiographical stories, which I will assemble into a one-woman show later on.

What is a day like in the studio for you?

Some days, I'm in my studio painting and making collages. Other days, I'm on my computer creating animations, prototypes and other digital projects. Since my twin daughters were born, I have less time in the studio. I also teach at the University of Texas at Austin. But I still try to spend a few hours each day making art, without any other work getting in the way.

What are you looking at right now and/or reading?

I am currently reading "Mother Doll" by Katya Apekina and watching anime with my daughters. In the month of June I will have a residency in Venice, Italy. I am excited to see Venice Biennial and be inspired by it!

Where can we find more of your work? (ex. website/insta/gallery/upcoming shows)

Website: www.yuliyalanina.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yuliya.lanina/

UPCOMING SHOWS

THREE PERSON SHOW:

Observations with Carla Gannis, Yuliya Lanina and Karen Marston Reception: April 28th, 5:30-7:30 pm April 28- May 18, 2024 Station Independent Projects 220 Geary Avenue, #2B Toronto, Canada stationindependent.com

SOLO SHOW:

Sara Nightingale Gallery July 13-July 31 Reception: July 13, 6-8pm 26 Main St, Sag Harbor, NY 11963

GROUP SHOW:

Strange Birds Figureworks in Saugerties 92 Partition St. (corner of Jane St.), 2 nd floor, Saugerties, NY 12477 Participating artists: Kristin Flynn, Susan Hamburger, Jessica Hargreaves, Yuliya Lanina, Arlene Morris Reception: Saturday, May 18, 3-5 pm May 18 – June 23, 2024 https://www.figureworks.com/upcoming-events

COLLABORATIVE PROJECT:

MoonFall Concept, Story and Music by Samuel Lipman, Choreography by Dorothy O’Shea Overbey, Art & Projection by Yuliya Lanina May 10-11th & 16-18th at 7:30PM https://www.rednightfallproductions.com/moonfall