Art of Her

Askhat Akhmedyarov's personal exhibition opened in Almaty. The artist translates hope with irony to reality, the correspondent of Art of Her reports.

The exhibition "YMIT" (from Kazakh – "hope") is a tribute to the era of change that Kazakhstan is going through now (the era of hope for change). The artist comprehends the socio-political phenomena that have been taking place in the country since the beginning of the XX century. In addition, the exhibition "YMIT" is a tribute to the artist's grandmother, whose name was Umit.

"As an artist, I want the viewer not just to experience something in the form of colors, some bright sunsets, namely, that he considers some problem, that he does research, studies. I have been preparing for this exhibition for more than a year," Askhat Akhmedyarov said.

The solo exhibition included 2 installations "Centenary" (a monumental installation of white and red kese) and "Sabyr" (inverted cauldrons for pilaf), a two-channel video "Ile" (a poetic story about the life of the Balkhash village of Orta Deresin) and a series of drawings in 2021 "Square Sun" (portraits of the artist's ancestors, repressed Stalin, girls in Xinjiang, oppositionists, poet and publicist Aron Atabek).

It should be noted that this is the first solo exhibition of the artist in Almaty.

"I believe that the viewer should come out changed. This should serve as an awakening effect, so that a person begins to look at all this (Editor's note: the problems that the artist translates in his works) in a different way," Askhat Akhmedyarov shared.

Askhat Akhmedyarov is the main protagonist of art activism in Kazakhstan. The artist ironically shows the viewer the dissonance in cultural, social and political life. Participant of national and international exhibitions, the last solo exhibition of the artist was held in 2016 at the National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the capital "Singular plural". He lived in the capital for 20 years, in 2022 he moved to Almaty.

The exhibition "YMIT" runs from July 7 to September 18, 2022 at Aspan Gallery. Admission is free.

Address: Aspan Gallery (Almaty, Al-Farabi ave., 140a/3, minus the 1st floor).

Tuesday – Saturday from 11:00 to 19:00. Sunday from 12:00 to 18:00.