Natalia Papaeva

Natalia Papaeva is a visual/time-based artist born and raised in Buryatia (Eastern Siberia) and based in the Netherlands. Her artistic process begins with text – read or written – translated into movement, images, and sound. Her endangered birth language, Buryat, materializes in her practice. She often brings the private into the public realm and by doing so resisting cultural erasure.

She holds a BA from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague. In 2018, she won the TENT Rotterdam Award and the IMD Department Prize from KABK for best video work. In 2025, she was awarded Frans de Wit and the Business Platform Schipholweg prizes for her sculpture, The Fire in My Mind. From 2022-2024, she was a resident at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. Her work has been exhibited at HKW, M HKA, Kasseler Kunstverein, the Asian Biennial, and the Ulaanbaatar Biennial, and is held in both institutional and private collections internationally.

Photo by Nadezhda Titova.