The first private museum of modern and contemporary art in Central Asia is to open next year in Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty.
More than 700 artworks by Kazakh and Central Asian artists will be housed in a new 9,400 sq m building designed by British architects Chapman Taylor.
The Almaty Museum of Arts will also feature works by international artists, including a ceramic mural by the French modernist Fernand Leger, a large-scale, walkthrough sculpture by the late American sculptor Richard Serra and a multi-channel audiovisual installation by the video artist Bill Viola. Also on view will be commissioned outdoor sculptures by the Polish-German artist Alicja Kwade and the British artist Yinka Shonibare.
The collection belongs to the institution’s founder, Nurlan Smagulov, a Kazakh businessman who oversees the Astana Group, which primarily deals in car manufacture and shopping malls. In addition to his interest in art, Smagulov is the president of the Kazakhstan Cycling Federation.
He said in a statement: “Art has the power to transform lives, and it once transformed mine. For me, Almaty Museum of Arts is not just a museum; it serves as a bridge that connects Central Asia's vibrant and diverse art with the global cultural scene. Our mission is to create an inspiring space where both the people of Kazakhstan and international visitors can experience contemporary art that resonates with universal human experiences, while also showcasing the distinctive cultural voices of our region.”
Salikhitdin Aytbayev, On Virgin Soil. Lunchtime (1960s)
Courtesy of Almaty Museum of Arts
The building is designed to symbolise the surrounding environment of Almaty, a bustling city of two million people that remains the country’s economic and cultural centre, despite ceding capital city status to Astana in 1997. The museum will be made up of two L-shaped structures, one representing the city, covered in aluminium, and the other representing the nearby Tian Shan mountains, clad in limestone. The Kazakh portion of the mountain range was listed as a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 2016.
The building comprises a 1,000 m² temporary exhibitions room featuring 12m high ceilings which will host special exhibitions twice a year, a permanent exhibition room for works from the Museum’s own collection, and gardens to display outdoor sculptures.
Opening to the public in summer 2025, the first exhibition will be a solo show by Kazakh artist Almagul Menlibayeva, titled I Understand Everything. It will be the Almaty-born artist’s first retrospective showcasing her work from the 1980s to the present day. The themes of her work include the role of women, identity politics, ecology and neo-colonialism.
The chief curator for the museum will be Inga Lāce, who was a Central and Eastern Europe fellow at the Museum of Modern Art in New York until 2023. Some of her other projects include the Latvian pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2019 and the Latvian contemporary art festival Survival Kit between 2017 and 2023.
Meruyert Kaliyeva, an Almaty-native, will be the institution’s artistic director. She graduated from University College London with a history of art degree and has worked in the postwar and contemporary art department at Christie’s auction house. In 2015 she founded Aspan Gallery, specialising in Central Asian contemporary art in Almaty.
She said: “We are here to celebrate the voices, visions, and histories of artists from Kazakhstan and beyond, providing a vibrant platform for further study and appreciation of contemporary art in the region. We aim to inspire curiosity, dialogue, and a deeper understanding of the artistic heritage and contemporary expressions that shape and reflect Central Asia’s cultural landscape.”