Ulaanbaatar, previously anglicized as Ulan Bator, is the capital and most populous city of Mongolia. It has a population of 1.6 million, and it is the coldest capital city in the world by average yearly temperature. The municipality is located in north central Mongolia at an elevation of about 1,300 metres (4,300 ft) in a valley on the Tuul River. The city was founded in 1639 as a nomadic Buddhist monastic centre, changing location 28 times, and was permanently settled at its modern location in 1778.
Michael Shaowanasai is a Thai-American artist and actor who lives in Bangkok, Thailand. His works includes performance art, photography, video, film and installations. Openly gay, his works are often provocative, such as photographic portrait of himself as a Buddhist monk made up to look like a woman. Active as an artist since 1997, his works have featured in international exhibitions since 1999, and his work is held in major collections.
Öndör Gegeen Zanabazar was the first Jebtsundamba Khutuktu and the first Bogd Gegeen or supreme spiritual authority, of the Gelugpa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia.
The architecture of Mongolia is largely based on traditional dwellings, such as the yurt and the tent. During the 16th and 17th centuries, lamaseries were built throughout the country as temples which were later enlarged to accommodate a growing number of worshipers. Mongolian architects designed their temples with six and twelve angles and pyramidal roofs approximating the yurt's round shape. Further expansion led to a quadratic shape in the design of the temples, with roofs in the shape of pole marquees. Trellis walls, roof poles and layers of felt were eventually replaced by stone, brick beams and planks.
Works of sculpture have been crafted in Mongolia since prehistoric times. Bronze Age megaliths known as deer stones depicted deer in an ornamented setting. Statues of warriors, the Kurgan stelae, were created under Turkic rule from the 6th century CE, and later started to bear inscriptions in a phonetic script, the Orkhon script, which were deciphered only in the 1980s. Warrior statues continued under the Uighurs, who also made a gold image of the Buddha. Many examples of sculptures of people and animals, as well as carved stelae, are known from the Mongol Empire, especially from its capital Karakorum.
Gankhüügiin Pürevbat was a Mongolian painter, art collector, museum director and Buddhist teacher in the Vajrayana School. Lam Pürevbat was the founder of the Zanabazar Mongolian Institute of Buddhist Art. He was born in 1965 in Bornuur in the Töv Province.
Lavar Munroe is a Bahamian-American artist, working primarily in painting, cardboard sculptural installations, and mixed media drawings. His work is often categorized as: a hybrid medium that straddle the line between sculpture and painting. Munroe lives and works in the United States.
Alexie Glass-Kantor is an Australian curator. Since 2013 until 2024, she held the position of executive director of Artspace Visual Arts Centre in Sydney.
Natalie King is an Australian curator and writer working in Melbourne, Australia. She specializes in Australian and international programs for contemporary art and visual culture. This includes exhibitions, publications, workshops, lectures and cultural partnerships across contemporary art and indigenous culture.
Nomin Bold is a Mongolian painter born in 1982 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. She is part of a new generation of artists which uses the Mongol Zurag painting style. Nomin Bold studied Mongol Zurag at the School of Fine Arts at the Mongolian University of Arts and Culture. According to her, Nomin's paintings are influenced by the Buddhist Thangka paintings. She is married to a Mongolian artist Baatarzorig Batjargal.
Jantsankhorol Erdenebayar, also known as Jantsa, is a Mongolian multidisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles, California.
Baatarzorig Batjargal is a Mongolian painter "who draws on the techniques of Mongol Zurag painting to address the broader history of Mongolia’s development over the past century". His artistic process includes his collection of various objects such as nomadic heirlooms and metal decorations which he often uses as a canvas for his paintings.
Enkhbold Togmidshiirev is a Mongolian contemporary artist known for his use of "organic materials such as horse dung, ash, rust, leather and wood" in his conceptual performances.
Munkhtsetseg Jalkhaajav also known as Mugi, is one of the leading contemporary artists of Mongolia. Her interdisciplinary works incorporate paintings, sculptures, collages, performance and media art.
Uuriintuya Dagvasambuu is a Mongolian artist. As a "contemporary master of Mongol Zurag", she incorporates traditional patterns and Buddhist motifs in her paintings and draws on experiences of Mongolian women and the everyday lives of post-nomadic Mongolia.
Gantuya Badamgarav is a Mongolian art curator and the founder of Art Space 976+. She is the first ever organizer and commissioner of Mongolia Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia.
Ming Wong is a Singaporean contemporary artist who lives and works in Berlin, known for his re-interpretations of iconic films and performances from world cinema in his video installations, often featuring "miscastings" of himself in roles of varied identities.
The Fine Arts Zanabazar Museum is an art museum located in Chingeltei District, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and founded in 1966. It exhibits collections of Mongolian masters of fine arts from the 18th to the 20th century and works in cooperation with the UNESCO for improving the presentation of its collections.
Oksana Shatalova is a visual artist, art critic, writer and curator from Kazakhstan.
