| Exhibiting Name | Sainbayan Iderchuluun |
| Birth Year | 1993 |
| Country of Origin | Mongolia |
| Current Base | Mongolia |
| Primary Disciplines | Mixed Media · Writing · Painting |
| Medium / Materials | Leather · Acrylic · Oil · Found Objects |
| Career Stage | Emerging |
| Years Active | From 2014 |
| Education (key) | Bachelor of Shoemaking and Leather Accessory Design, Urlakh Erdem Institute of Art and Design (est.1993), 2014. Master of Business Administration (specialisation in Entrepreneurship), University of Finance and Economics, 2025. |
| Gallery / Representation | Independent |
| Solo Exhibitions | 1 |
| Group Exhibitions | 13 |
| Social Media | Instagram |
| Open to Opportunities | Gallery Representation · Exhibition · Collection · International Art Residency · Research |
| Contact Email | Email the Artist |
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Sainbayan Iderchuluun (b. 1993, Mongolia) is a conceptual artist, designer and permanent makeup artist whose multi-faceted practice-based research explores identity, mortality, and the evolution of the self through writing, mixed-media and site-specific works. Educated at the “Ireedui / Future”, a high school for fine arts, and later at Urlakh Erdem Art and Design Institute (est. 1993), where she double‑majored in shoemaking and leather accessory design, she brings precise material knowledge of leather to experimental practices.
Since beginning to work professionally in 2014, Sainbayan has moved from fashion and accessory design into contemporary art practice. For this transition to take place, Sainbayan had to develop a self‑directed theoretical grounding by attending intensive workshops and lectures run by Vanjil Art Institute (2013-2023, Ulaanbaatar), engaging philosophers such as Molor‑Erdene Sanjaadorj and Richard David Precht to deepen the conceptual framework of her practice, given Mongolia’s lack of a structured learning environment for contemporary art.
Her debut solo exhibition “Who Am I” (Joroikhulan Art Gallery, Ulaanbaatar, 2020) brought together eight works, including “The Meditation on Death”, “Human I”, “Human II”, “Deel / Nudity”, “The Beauty of the Mind”, “The Mind”, and the installation “Who Am I”. These works weave traditional Mongolian motifs ерөөл (eng.spoken blessings), deel garment, sun and moon patterns, parallel and horizontal eyes, and fire as a symbol of prosperity into abstract, contemporary forms that refuse cliché.
In her New Wind Archive interviews, she frames her use of leather, sand, stone, and earth as a way to register touch, time, and psychological transition, from designer to artist, from surface to inner life. Her ability to tackle wide-ranging subjects and learn new skills while navigating multiple sectors is becoming increasingly common among the new Mongolians and is referred to as having a portfolio career.
CURATORIAL STATEMENT
Sainbayan Iderchuluun (b. 1993, Mongolia) is a multidisciplinary artist with a sustained, materially grounded inquiry into what it means to become a self in contemporary Mongolia. Trained initially as a designer in shoemaking and leather accessory design between 2010 and 2014, she brings an intimate knowledge of leather to a practice that treats material not as a neutral support but as a co-author, one that resists, holds pressure, and remembers.
Her transition from designer to artist was self-authored, built through workshops, lectures, and reading rather than any structured contemporary-art education, and that determination registers in the work itself. This trajectory places her on a different path from the artists who studied at the Institute of Fine Arts (est. 1945), Mongolia’s oldest institution, and equips her with a non-traditional perspective.
In her first land art work, “Amar baina uu?” (“Are you at peace?”), which was made over five days at the Örtöö Art Camp in the Khöshig Valley co-organised by the Blue Sun contemporary art centre and Mars project, her text becomes an integral part of the site-specific engagement. Drawn to a dried-up river, she created the work from her regret at its death, her questions about why it had disappeared and what is lost, from animals to life, when water disappears from the land. At its centre is the chandmani, the wish-fulfilling jewel, with three narrowed eyes at its heart, a motif of reverence meant to make viewers pause and reconnect with nature.
Her piece “The Meditation on Death” came out of the death of an older coworker at the leather goods factory where she worked, forcing her to confront mortality. Here, the material carries the concept: the piece is made entirely from rejected, defective leather offcuts, holed, aged white scraps. Just as society attends to famous deaths while overlooking “ordinary” people, good leather is prized and flawed leather discarded; that discarded material becomes its core (New Wind Mongolia Archive, 4 February 2026).
The work was selected among 197 recognised works out of 1,507 entries from 25 countries in the 26th Da Dun Fine Arts Exhibition, organised by Taichung City Government in Taichung, Taiwan.
In the series “Tanikhui, Medreküi, Nökhörlökhüi” (eng. “Recognising, Sensing, Befriending”), made for the Khürel Buga association’s falconry exhibition “Shuvuuchlakhui,” Sainbayan reframes Mongolian falconry as companionship, the bird not as a labourer but as a befriended animal. Three leather works track the stages of relation: “Recognising,” a chest relief of the falcon; “Sensing,” the hooded bird that perceives through scent and breath; and a culminating pairing of person and bird that reads as companionship. Built as plump, hollow reliefs from raw goat hide, the works are genuinely three-dimensional, drawing on national imagery of mountains, trees, and eyes (New Wind Mongolia Archive, 4 February 2026).
Sainbayan is at a crossroads in her art practice, navigating multiple interests and retaining a relentless curiosity to learn and challenge herself. As a PMU artist, she has mastered the skill; recently, she has begun to write more, particularly exhibition analyses and reviews.
Dr Tsendpurev Tsegmid
2026.06.13
References
Tsegmid, T. (2021) ‘Who Am I: The Investigation of the Self through Mongolian Symbolism and Leather-based Mixed Media Art’, Vanjil Art Institute (Medium), 25 August. Available at: https://medium.com/vanjil-art-institute/who-am-i-the-investigation-of-the-self-through-mongolian-symbolism-and-leather-based-mixed-media-b8df4a0b9a69.
Archival discussion with the artist, 2026, New Wind Mongolia Archive, 4 February.
About Artist Inquiries
New Wind Mongolia documents contemporary Mongolian artists through original research and curatorial writing. Each artist profile includes their direct contact information.
New Wind is a research platform, not a representation or liaison service. All inquiries regarding exhibitions, collaborations, or opportunities should be directed to the artist.
Copyright
©2026, Sainbayan Iderchuluun & New Wind, Art of Mongolia, Rewritten for the World. All rights reserved. Please do not copy or republish on a different platform without the author’s permission. If the use is for educational purposes, please credit our archive as the source.
This entry has been updated on 2026.06.13. The next update is due on 2029.06.13.