Aigana Gali
Aigana Gali | |
|---|---|
| File:Aigana Gali.jpg | |
| Born | Ayganim Sadykova June 23, 1980 Almaty, Kazakhstan |
| Nationality | Kazakh |
| Website | aiganagali |
Aigana Gali is a Kazakh multi-media artist who works primarily on canvas and textiles. She has been described as 'one of the brightest young talents of Kazakh modern art"[1], Gali came to prominence with her solo exhibition Steppe at Georgian National Museum Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts Art Museum of Georgia. Her work has also been shown at the Saatchi Gallery and Royal Academy of Arts and is held in private and public collections in Russia, Europe and Kazakhstan. Gali has collaborated with numerous artists and creators including jeweller Elisabetta Cipriani and the late architect Ricardo Bofill Levi She lives and works in London, UK.
Life and career
Born to a Georgian mother and Kazakhstani father, Aigana Gali was raised in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where her formative years were spent in the wild, open cradle of the Eurasian Steppe.[2] She trained at the Profi-Studio ballet school, graduating in 1996. The same year she won a competition to model in Paris; despite a successful career in haute couture and magazines including Vogue, she was unhappy,[3] and after nearly four years returned to Kazakhstan to paint and study, gaining a Bachelor's degree from Almaty State University and a post-grad from the Kazakh Academy of Science (KazGASA). Between 2007-2009 Gali starred in several Kazakh films, including the award-winning Strayed, which was also nominated at the Montreal World Film Festival in 2009.[4] She also worked as a costumier a guest Art Director at the Rambert in 2010 and the Marjanishvili Theatre Tbilisi in 2014.[5] After moving to London in 2007, she gained a Master's Degree at Sotheby's Institute of Art[6]
Work
Gali's artistic work is divided across multiple media, from canvas and paper to textiles and bronze.
Painting
Through bold, dramatic canvases and textile creations, Aigana expresses a rare spirituality in which she explores the natural world, or invokes myths and legends from different cultures. She explores universal human themes through elaborate concepts of duality, such as physical world and spiritual beliefs, reality and imagination, human constructions and nature, being and nothingness.Over the past decade she has developed several series of work related to these elements. Art critic John McEwen wrote, "Almaty is where East met West on the Great Silk Road. Miss Gali’s art is inspired by this rich history and the endless steppe of her homeland: ‘I can see its nature in everything I do... a deep feeling of nothingness washes over you, but it’s the perfect “nothing'... you feel the true proportion of your personality against this enormous void.’"[7]
In Creation Myth, shown at stART Art Fair at the Saatchi Gallery, she paints a story through the symbols of her ancestors, enlisting the petroglyphs of Kazakh caves and the cosmology of Tengri, an ancient form of spirituality found in the Steppe.[8] The paintings the Steppe series depict neither a particular space nor a precise landscape. Each work is an open possibility; an attempt to make visible a cosmogony of the steppe embroidered with timelessness and infinity. The absence of contours can suggest form; colors and mood change constantly according to the light.was an all-encompassing experience that invites viewers through paintings and sound into an extraordinary, boundless world. For the opening show at the Georgia National Museum, award-winning composers Olivier Behzadi and Jimmy Green created a mix of Turk and Central Asian contemporary music[9].
Tengri: Light Works are an evolution from the abstract colour fields in Steppe - nothingness - through to the geometric forms of Tengri - being. Gali states, "Tengri comes out of the empty spaces, from the constant solitude experienced by people who for millennia have called the Steppe home. You cannot hide there. You are open to the world and to the plains. The colours and the light change constantly, and meld together. I wanted to capture this and create an ever-changing image. Tengri is the vibration of this feeling. It is an introspective spirituality. Everything - people, animals, spirits - all come from Tengri."[10] One of the pieces from this series, Meditator II, was chosen for the Royal Academy of Art's Summer Exhibition. [11].
Of her process (and name change) Gali states, "I went on to study fine art and when I did my masters degree, I wrote my thesis on The influence of Russian Academic school of Painting to Kazakh school. I was interested in how we had evolved culturally, from a shamanic tribe who once only painted symbols for decorative art, mostly in textiles. I learnt about Aiganym – the wife of the tribal leader Wali – who invited painters from Russia to teach her children and grandchildren. In a way she was the root of Kazakh fine art. I was given her name, and I am a direct beneficiary of this – the importation of a very strict Soviet academic school... but at the same time the root of my practice lies underneath this in the Scythian tradition – in shamanic ritual.[12]
Textiles
During Gali's time as a model, she developed a deep appreciation of how clothing can transform, protect and celebrate the person within. Later, as she was establishing her reputation as a costume designer for theatre and ballet, the idea of art-couture came to her. In her Manifestations collection, Aigana fused her skill as a couturier with her artistic vision to create limited-edition pieces for individual clients and collections.
Selected Exhibitions
- 2004 Solo show, The Alma-Ata Art Gallery, Almaty
- 2005 Solo show, Ark Art Gallery, Almaty
- 2006 Solo show, Zig-Zag Art Gallery, Almaty
- 2007 Solo Show, Abylkhan Kasteyev Museum of Arts Republic of Kazakhstan
- 2009 Solo show, OYU Art Gallery, Almaty
- 2010 Solo Show, The Gallery, Westbury Hotel, London
- 2011 The Holy Garden, The Hay Hill Gallery,[13] London
- 2011- to present, permanent exhibition, Kensington Close Hotel
- 2013 Central Asian Art Fair London
- 2014 Solo exhibition Mayfair design Studio
- 2015 Group Exhibition, Hay Hill Gallery, London
- 2016 Group Exhibition VP studio art4.ru Museum Moscow
- 2016 Steppe, Solo exhibition, Georgian National Museum of Art, Tbilisi, Georgia
- 2016, Group Exhibition, Hay Hill Gallery, London[14]
- 2017 Paintings, David Linley, London
- 2019 stART Art Fair, Saatchi Gallery
- 2020 Manifestations solo show, 68 Kinnerton Street, London
- 2021 Light Works, group show, 68 Kinnerton Street, London
- 2021 Summer Exhibition, group show, Royal Academy of Arts[15].
Personal Life
Gali is married with two children and lives in London, UK.
References
- ^ "Steppe". www.museum.ge. Georgian National Museum. Retrieved 5 May 2022.
- ^ "Aigana Gali". Aigana Gali.
- ^ Squires, Cally. "Strong Silhouettes". mayfairtimes.com. Publishing Business. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
- ^ "Strayed". www.imdb.com. Amazon. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
- ^ "Kote Marjanishvili State Drama Theatre". Europeantheatre.eu. European Theatre. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
- ^ "My Favourite Painting". countrylife.co.uk. Future Publishing. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
- ^ "My Favourite Painting". countrylife.co.uk. Future Publishing. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
- ^ "About". Aigana Gali. Aigana Gali.
- ^ "Music for Fine Art Exhibition". www.jimmygreenmusic.com. Jimmy Green.
- ^ Dingwall-Main, Theodore (May 2021). [www.kclwlondon.co.uk "Arts & Culture: Light Works"]. Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster Today. Retrieved 5 May 2022.
{{cite news}}: Check|url=value (help) - ^ "Meditator II - Summer Exhibition Explorer". www.royalacademy.org.uk. Royal Academy of Arts.
- ^ "Exclusive with the artist Aigana Gali". www.wallstreetluxury-europe.com. Wall Street Luxury. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
- ^ "The Holy Garden". www.hayhillgallery.com. Hay Hill Gallery. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
- ^ "Patrice Valota & Aigana Gali paintings". all In London. All In London. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
- ^ "Meditator II - Summer Exhibition Explorer". www.royalacademy.org.uk. Royal Academy of Arts.