In the midst of quarantine, I saw Stagnation (Стагнация) by Bobur Ismailov. The painting shows a lonely girl in a confined room with a book on her knees and the…

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…

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…

“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…

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…

 – 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 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,…

“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…

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…