Feminism and Central Asia – What Went Wrong?
Feminism is not adequately perceived in Central Asian societies. Some consider it as a threat to the existing traditions of the patriarchal foundation, when a woman (responsible for too many…
Art Bazar! A New Initiative for Central Asian Artists to Create An Online Marketplace for Contemporary Art
Author Diana T. Kudaibergenova Diana T. Kudaibergenova is a Postdoctoral Research Associate on the UKRI GCRF “COMPASS” project at the University of Cambridge. She studies different intersections of power relations…
Contemporary Art in Central Asia: An Interview with a Curator
Interview withThibaut de Ruyter is a French architect, curator, and critic. His latest projects include a traveling exhibition for the Goethe Institute in Eastern Europe and Central Asia entitled “die…
Central Asian and Azerbaijani Contemporary Art Discussion at Asia House, UK
“Azerbaijani and Central Asian art have a lot to offer the world in terms of discovery,” – says Rose Issa, a renowned curator and writer who has helped to introduce Iranian…
Civil Protests, Art, and Politics in Kazakhstan
As Kazakhstan heads for its first presidential election without long-time leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, a group of creative youth activists has shattered the appearance of stability in the country with several…
Occidentalizing America: Art of a Visiting Scholar
– I always wanted to be an artist. When I was in high school, my dream was to be accepted to the Repin Academy in St. Petersburg or the Surikov…
Saule Suleimenova: A Journey to Find True Kazakhness
Saule Suleimenova is a contemporary artist based in Almaty, Kazakhstan. She works with a wide range of media: watercolors, wax engraving, painting on newspaper, archival photos painted over urban graffiti,…
Artist Talk: “I Protest with My Art”. Interview with Marifat Davlatova, contemporary artist from Tajikistan
“I started painting as a child. At first I copied some pictures and understood that this was what I liked—just to paint. Then I went to the children’s artistic school…
Contemporary Art in Central Asia as an Alternative Forum for Discussions
Looking at state-society relations in Central Asia, Diana Kudaibergenova sees contemporary art as an alternative forum for discussions and critique. Dr. Kudaibergenova has published extensively on this topic, focusing on…