Biography

Sonya Radan was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H).

After earning her diploma in fine art, she exhibited across the former Yugoslavia and Europe.

In 1991, she and her family escaped the war in the Balkans, in which she lost her country, along with all her paintings, and the career as an artist and art teacher that she had established in Sarajevo.

She never stopped painting and believing in her art.

She settled in London, where she has continued exhibiting and exploring different art mediums such as painting on wood, textile and glass, as well as woodcarving, drawing and collage.

Sonya was included in an anthology called Lighthouses (2017), which featured profiles of the most renowned Bosnian and Herzegovinian artists now living around the world. In 2008, she was selected to represent B&H among 42 countries in a major exhibition: Mediterraneo (The Sea that Unites Us), at the Italian Cultural Institute London.

She was also chosen to be among the artists in the Global Eye Programme, developed by START.art, and her work was shown at the Saatchi Gallery, London.

Sonya is the member of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Art Society and continues to paint and exhibit in galleries and museums in many of the major cities across the Balkans and the UK.

Word from the artist

I am a figurative artist and I paint with oil or acrylic on canvas, but I also create wooden sculptures, which I paint and collage with different materials. I also work with glass and with papier-mâché and paint on silk.

I have gone through many changes in my life, and in the process of creation I have always loved discovering new mediums and different forms of artistic expression.

There is a continuous thread running through my work: I usually paint women and, in contemplating them, I strive to reveal and affirm female identity through different phases of life.

Inspiration is a miracle. Sometimes I find it at my local swimming pool, sometimes in pieces of wood that I find in a skip; sometimes it comes from memory.

How and why we create something can't always be explained, but I know I have a constant need to do so. My work will always reflect my inner state which is also the way of life am living.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

2023: Gallery Sanjaj, Belgrade, Serbia.

‘Artist on Display’, ULUPUBiH Gallery, Sarajevo, B&H.

Art & More Rovinj Festival, Spirito Santo, Rovinj, Croatia.

‘Moods’, Gallery Fontika, Rovinj, Croatia.

Arka Educational Centre, Sarajevo Winter Festival, B&H.

2022: ‘Nothing is Accidental’, Atelje Figure, Sarajevo, B&H

‘My First 30 Years in London’, B&H Embassy London, UK.

‘Swimmers’, Worldly Wicked & Wise Gallery, London, UK.

2020: ‘Recollection of Wood’, Worldly Wicked & Wise Gallery, London, UK.

2019: Gallery Novi Hram, Sarajevo, B&H.

2018: Kristina K, private, Zagreb, Croatia.

2017: Museum of the City of Hvar - Zvjezda Mora, Croatia.

Kranjcar Gallery, Zagreb, Croatia.

2015: Vetrinjski Dvor, Maribor, Slovenia.

Croatian Embassy, London, UK.

2014: AtrijumGallery, Beograd, Serbia.

Culture center, Novi Sad, Serbia.

Art gallery, Brčko, B&H.

An International Portrait Gallery, Tuzla, B&H.

Gallery of Contemporary Art - Java, Sarajevo, B&H.

Nationwide Open University, Zagreb, Croatia.

2013: Gallery Montenegrina, Zagreb, Croatia.

2012: Bejahad (Bet Israel), Pula, Croatia.

New Temple Gallery, Sarajevo, B&H.

2011: B&H Embassy, London, UK.

Dea Orh Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic.

2006: Salon Gallery, London, UK.

2003: Heifer Gallery, London, UK.

2002: Alison Jacques Gallery, London, UK.

2001: Mark Jason Gallery, London, UK.

2000: Terra Gallery, London, UK.

1995: Sternberg Centre for Judaism, London, UK.

1994: Tavistock Institute, London.

Berkeley Gallery, Thomastown, Kilkenny County, Ireland.

1993: Articles Gallery, London.

Collyer Bristow Gallery, London, UK.

1991: Energoinvest Gallery, Sarajevo, B&H.

Novi Hram Gallery, Sarajevo, B&H.

1990: Libertas Gallery, Dubrovnik, Croatia.

1989: Revelin Gallery, Korčula, Croatia.

1988: Jewish Museum of Bosnia and Hercegovina, Sarajevo, B&H.

1987: CDA Culture Centre, Sarajevo, B&H.

Galerija Zvono, Sarajevo, B&H.

1986: Jewish Museum of Bosnia and Hercegovina, Sarajevo, B&H.

Group exhibitions

2025: ART BALKAN, Tabernacle Gallery and B&H Embassy London

2024: 70 YEARS of ULUPUBiH, Sarajevo, B&H,The Reveal Exhibition, Collegium Artisticum, Sarajevo, B&H, Sanjaj Gallery, Belgrade, Serbia.

2023: ULUPUBiH Gallery, Sarajevo, B&H.

2022: ULUPUBiH Gallery, Sarajevo, B&H.

Gallery Sanjaj, Belgrade, Serbia.

2021: START the Global Eye Programme

2018: Recollection of Wood, START in Saatchi Gallery, London, UK.

The Reveal Exhibition, Collegium Artisticum, Sarajevo, B&H.

2017: Contemporary Art Gallery Roman Petrovic, Sarajevo, B&H.

2017: The Reveal Exhibition, Collegium Artisticum, Sarajevo, B&H.

2017: Contemporary Art Gallery Java, Sarajevo.

2016: International Contemporary Art Fair, Collegium Artisticum, Sarajevo, B&H.

2015: International Contemporary Art Fair, London; Collegium Artisticum, Sarajevo, B&H.

2014: Chelsea Old Town Hall, London; Collegium Artisticum, Sarajevo, B&H.

2013: City Gallery Rovinj, Croatia

2012: Embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Great Britain, London, UK.

2011: Dea Orh Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic

2010: Art St Cyprian’s Church, London, UK.

Windsor Contemporary Art Fair, London, UK.Salon des Arts, London, UK.Landmark Art Fairs, Cambridge, UK.

Midsummer Art Fair, London, UK.

Russian Art Fair, London, UK.

The Dissenters Gallery, London, UK.

2009: Embassy of B&H, London, UK.

Portobello Bridge Gallery, London, UK.

2008: Mediterraneo (A Sea that Unites), Italian Cultural Institute, London, UK,

2007: Russian Art Fair, Park Lane Hotel, Mayfair, London, UK.

2006: Pro Art Exhibition, Chelsea Old Town Hall, London, UK.

2004: Religion, Art & War, Salon des Art, London, UK.

2000: Willesden Art Gallery, London, UK.

1999: Priory Art Gallery, London, UK.

1996: The Octagon Gallery, London, UK.

1995: Sternberg Centre for Judaism, London, UK.

Illaca Gallery, Brighton, UK.

1994: Salama Caro Gallery, London, UK.

Crypt Exhibition, St Martin's-in the Field, London, UK.

Garter Lane Arts Centre, Waterford, Ireland

1993: Art Club, London, UK.

Ben Uri Art Society, Central London, UK.