VERA

REINER

I never loved concepts and always loved stories. Some people were born to paint, some to shape stone, and I tell stories, using whatever form serves them best, from ink graphics to performance

I was born in Yakutia, spent years as a journalist and at some point traded editorial deadlines for studio ones. I now travel the world gathering moments, ideas, and snatches of conversations and work across ink graphics, ceramics, performance, animation, and multilingual poetry. Whatever form a work takes, it shares the same register: tender and brutal at once, sometimes funny in the same breath as devastating. My visual world is mostly black and white, and it can look unsettling or sad at first, but look closer and you'll find more tenderness and light than you expected.

I was born in Yakutia, spent years as a journalist and at some point traded editorial deadlines for studio ones. I now travel the world gathering moments, ideas, and snatches of conversations and work across ink graphics, ceramics, performance, animation, and multilingual poetry. Whatever form a work takes, it shares the same register: tender and brutal at once, sometimes funny in the same breath as devastating. My visual world is mostly black and white, and it can look unsettling or sad at first, but look closer and you'll find more tenderness and light than you expected.

  • my medium is narrative ·

MEMORY

FRAGILITY

MYTH

these six words
are the coordinates
of my practice

CONNECTION

FRAGMENTS

GHOSTS

and these six words are the coordinates of my practice

01

Myth

Myths aren't just ancient relics, they shaped us before we knew it. I don't simply reference them – I construct my own: new myths that free us from the old constraints or reframe personal trauma as part of grander lore. I build a world where people don't die but fall asleep to wake up later. Where a missing father didn't walk out for cigarettes, but was a Greek god gone back to Olympus. Where angels roam the streets alongside generals and taxi drivers. Myth lives in the mundane: I love stories that feel both ancient and last Tuesday

Myth

I WORK WITH

Ink graphics & animationDetailed black-and-white drawings where comics aesthetics meets the feel of old engravings
Performance
Paintings
Objects

explore this
and more in the

section