A contemporary Kazakhstani artist, member of the art group Kyzyl Traktor, member of the Union of Artists of Kazakhstan, and corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of Kazakhstan. His work includes sculpture, installations, paintings, video art, and performances. Key methods cover irony, play, semiotics, poeticism, and utopia. Key ideas are the search for cultural identity, memory, shamanism, and nomadism.
S. Bayaliyev studied at the P. Benkov Art School in Tashkent (1974–1977). From 1981, he lived and worked in Shymkent, and in the early 1990s he joined the first avant-garde art group in South Kazakhstan, Kyzyl Traktor (until 1995 known as the “SaA Group,” “Shymkent–Transavantgarde,” and “Structural School Si”). At the same time, he worked as an individual artist. In 1991, his debut solo exhibition took place (the Bal-Bal Gallery, Shymkent), and in 1997, he received his first award (the Asia Art exhibition, Tashkent).
In his work, S. Bayaliyev draws on images from the past and selectively places them in the space of reality. They freeze on the canvas like frames from memory, in the spirit of suprematism and cubism (“Musicians,” 2005), or in abstract form (“Turkestan,” 2015). The artist deciphers historical photographs (“Nomads,” 2018), deconstructs everyday scenes, and creates comical cartoon collages from them (“Kurt Daiyndau,” 2017). In his installations and video art, he poetically reflects on the connection between humans and nature (“Contact,” 2015), on themes of faith and death (“Pilgrim,” 2015), and on the memory of the region and the spirit of the nomadic people (“Spirit of Stone,” 2000).
S. Bayaliyev’s artworks have been exhibited in Kazakhstan and abroad: “Shymkent–Transavantgarde” (Almaty, 1990), “Gallery Parade 97” (the A. Kasteyev National Museum of Arts of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 1997), “No Mad’s Land” (the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, 2002), “La Sindrome di Tamerlano” (the Palazzo dei Sette, Orvieto, 2005), “La vie est une légende” (the Museum of Contemporary Art, Strasbourg, 2014), and “Thinking Collections: Telling Tales” (Asia Contemporary, Mana Contemporary, New Jersey, 2018). In addition, the artist participated in biennials (Tashkent, 1997, 2013) and festivals (the ArtBatFest, Almaty, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015; “White Night in Perm,” 2013).
As a member of the Kyzyl Traktor group, S. Bayaliyev took part in the “Sound OFF” exhibition held as part of the Korkut Sonic Arts Triennale (the Ykhlas Museum of Folk Musical Instruments, 2022).
S. Bayaliyev’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 (“Samrug Bird,” 2002), and the archive of the Soros Center for Contemporary Art – Almaty (SCCA).
Photograph provided by Smail Bayaliyev