A contemporary Kazakhstani artist. His works include paintings, graphics, video art, photography, installations, and performance art. Key methods cover irony and semiotics. Key ideas are decoloniality, trauma and memory, nomadism, ecology, and power.
A. Akhmedyarov studied at the Fine Arts and Technical Design School named after A. Kasteev (Shymkent, 1986–1989). His teachers were contemporary artists Vitaly Simakov and Moldakul Narymbetov, members of the art group “Kyzyl Traktor” (until 1995 – “SaA Group,” “Shymkent–Transavantgarde,” “Structural School Si”). After graduating, A. Akhmedyarov joined the group, and in the 2000s he moved to Astana, where he began working as an independent artist.
In his practice, Akhmedyarov explores elements of traditional (“Shai and Et,” 2016) and nomadic culture (“The Wealth of the Poor,” 2016) and places them in a contemporary context. The theme of post-trauma resonates in his performance “If Pain Burned” (2018), while the problem of historical memory and the decolonization of memory is explored in the installation “Century” (2022). A. Akhmedyarov studies the relationship between humans and everyday objects (the “Nomad” series of photographs, 2012) and explores the state of contemporary society through performance (“Dictator,” 2013; the performance dedicated to the victims of Qandy Qantar, 2024).
A. Akhmedyarov’s works have been featured in exhibitions such as “Off the Silk Road: No Mad’s Land – Contemporary Art from Central Asia” (Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, 2002), “Lost to the Future: Contemporary Art from Central Asia” (ICA Singapore, 2013), “Protagonists. The Invisible Pavilion of Kazakhstan” (the 56th Venice Biennale, Venice, 2015), “The Only Plural” (the National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Astana, 2016), “Clouds, Power and Ornament – Roving Central Asia” (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile, Hong Kong, 2023), and “In Dialogue with Fire” (M HKA Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgium, 2023).
A. Akhmedyarov’s works and information about him are stored in the collection of the Documentation project – the Şağylys collection, developed by the Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture and M HKA (“Autumn Cleaning,” 2012), the Tselinny archive (“Qandy Qantar” series: “Fog,” “Architecture of Change,” “Remnants of Dreams,” 2022), and the archive of the Soros Center for Contemporary Art – Almaty (SCCA).
Photograph provided by Askhat Akhmedyarov