The ANAU-MYNAU exhibition brought together 35 talented artists from all over the country working in the fields of painting and graphics. Their creative pursuits shape the unique face of contemporary Kazakh art.

“We will now hold the biennial every two years at this venue and give young artists a chance to express themselves. We prepared for the exhibition for quite a long time - 8 months. We thought through the concept, selected applications, of which there were very many. After the 150th, I stopped counting the number. The entire international curatorial council of Kulanshi sweated, but we chose those who are represented here today. During the selection process, we did not make restrictions on genres and techniques, because everyone has their own artistic language. We focused more on the idea of ​​the work and the quality of execution. As a result, we selected the best and intend to work with them already as artists, and not just as contestants,” said Leila Makhat, Chairman of the Curatorial Council of the Kulanshi Center for Contemporary Art.

The first biennial of youth art is an important step in supporting artists. The venue opened new names to viewers and created conditions for creative dialogue. The world through the eyes of young masters is expressed in diverse works. The young artist Aruzat Tilep sent a portrait of her grandmother Umit with her application.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t find her in life, but everyone says that I am very similar to her both in character and voice. Inspired by the image of my grandmother, I decided to dedicate this painting to her. I used various materials: plaster and fabric. Another work of mine, Nazar, is also exhibited here. Both paintings had not been presented anywhere before. In the work “Nazar” I expressed my love for nature. I am from the Kostanay region, we live near the forest and love to walk in the fresh air. Once I noticed that the places on the trees from the cut branches look like eyes. It felt like the trees were watching us. This thought inspired me,” said Aruzat Tilep.

The portrait genre is also represented at the biennial by the work of Yaroslava Tishchenko. Her two works were selected, with which the author wanted to show the faces of modern Kazakhstan. According to the artist, portraits of ordinary people are now rarely found at exhibitions.

“You could say that this is almost an endangered species of painting. We have so many memorable interesting people, they are not captured in portrait painting in any way. I would like to pay tribute with these two portraits to people in the service sector: janitors, trolleybus drivers and all those whom we do not notice. Work uniform dehumanizes a person, but behind it there is usually a difficult fate, a difficult path. I live in Almaty, and these people worked next to my workshop. I snatched them from the work week and asked them to pose for me. We talked a lot about their life path,” said Yaroslava Tishchenko.

Each painting in the exhibition carries a certain semantic content. Artist Evgenia Grekina presented an abstraction in which she expressed her thoughts on how computer algorithms affect living human thinking.

“In the conditions of these algorithms, it is very scary to make a mistake, to violate something. People who make these mistakes are very strongly thrown out of context by algorithmic systems. If you did something unusual, then most likely you will not fit into some concept. There is less live, biological movement. I myself fell into these algorithms. For example, when running Instagram, you start creating a personal brand and trying to match it. This affects your thinking and how you communicate with other people. Deep values ​​such as friendship fade into the background. The first is benefit, benefit,” shared Evgenia Grekina.

Young authors expressed their views, beliefs and even musical preferences in their paintings. Artist Maria Volynskikh from Siberia moved to Kazakhstan two years ago. Her painting introduces visitors to the Siberian folk group Gilead.

“This is an amazing group that writes medieval music, participates as historical reenactors and plays at many festivals around the world. I started the painting a year ago. I didn’t really like the first version, so I primed it. And then, when I saw the announcement of the exhibition, I decided to finish it. It seemed to me that it would fit into the ethnic style of this event. I come from the Russian city of Irbit. I now live in Astana, work with children and prepare them for entering universities,” said Maria Volynskikh.

Artist Murat Ismukhan decided to warm visitors to the biennial with spring inspiration in the winter season. He submitted five works to the competition at once. The painting “Spring” was selected, which, as it turned out, had already been sold to a private collection.

“The painting has already been sold, but for the biennial I took it back against a receipt and a deposit. After it was selected here, I had a desire to write “Winter”, “Autumn” and “Summer”. I was inspired by spring in Astana. I have lived in the capital for the last four years. I come from Kokshetau, I exhibited there before. Astana absorbed me with its schedule. Sometimes there is not enough energy to paint pictures. I wrote about ten works, of which eight were sold, one was exhibited. I think this is already a good indicator,” said Murat Ismukhan.

The works of young authors show a desire to understand this world, find their place and express themselves through fine arts. Movement and search reflect the essence of the new project of the Kulanshi Center for Contemporary Art. The exhibition in the capital's art space FORTE KULANSHI ART SPACE will be open until March 2.