Art from Central Asia

In the new SAP art exhibition Art from Central Asia from November 18, 2022, to April 28, 2023, ten contemporary artists will take us on a painterly journey, marked by myths and legends, through a region that moves between tradition and modernity.

Central Asia has many faces. Archaic and modern, reality and fantasy, superstition, and religion blend into a dazzling mosaic. The former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan have been independent countries since 1991. The search for roots and identity between the Orient and the socialist past creates a strong bond in the Central Asian region. Nevertheless, the contrast between individuals with different social, ethical, and religious backgrounds could not be stronger.

In this complex structure, art finds many possible approaches. Subjects from historical and cultic set pieces, bizarre to exotic objects with folkloristic aesthetics and Soviet symbols of a bygone era are brought together. Not infrequently, dreams and poetry are transferred and interpreted into the reality of today.

The works in the SAP art exhibition are thematically diverse. They take the viewer into the field of expressive abstract painting, which at second glance reveals compositional elements, or into enchanted worlds, in which trees, hawks, horses, hunters and imposing female figures are transformed into magical beings, whose expression is enhanced by the magnificent color scheme.

The SAP art exhibition Art from Central Asia brings together ten contemporary positions that, through their artistic expression, make visible how entrenched they are in traditional visual culture and at the same time do not shy away from the step into modernity.

Exhibiting artists:
Alexey Kurbatov, Bobur Ismoilov, Elena Kambina, Eraj Olimov, Marat Bekeyev, Munisa Kholkhujaeva Murad Karabaev, Timur D’Vatz, Timur Ernst Akhmedov, Shakhnoz Abdullaeva