Adilkhan Yerzhanov is a film director and scriptwriter born in 1982 in Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. In 2009, he graduated from the Kazakh National Academy of Arts. Yerzhanov’s films have been screened and awarded at many international film festivals. He was a two-time participant of the Venice International Film festival (2020, 2022) and Cannes Film Festival (2014, 2018). He was the recipient of the ‘Asia Pacific Screen Awards’ for ‘Achievement in Directing’ in 2019 and the APSA Film Fund Development grant for A […]
Alexey Ulko is an Uzbek art critic and curator. He graduated from the Samarkand University as a teacher of the English Language and Literature in 1991 and obtained an MEd TTELT degree from the University of Exeter, UK in 2001. Since 2003, he has been working as a freelance consultant in culture, arts and language for a range of international organisations. In the mid-2000s, he started a new career as a contemporary art critic and curator and took part in […]
Eunice Tsang is a curator and artist based in Hong Kong. She founded and curates Current Plans, an alternative art space in Sham Shui Po that encourages cross-disciplinary dialogues through exhibition-making. Previously, she set up the Asian Artist Book Library in Tai Kwun Contemporary, focusing her research on independent publishing in Asia and modes of creative distribution. Her curatorial interests lie in how artists develop new languages and symbols in times of political change, and how to maneuver the liminal […]
Arystanbek Shalbayev is a Kazakh interdisciplinary artist who combines his creative work with his teaching career. After graduating from the Almaty State Theater and Art Institute in 1984, he started teaching at the Shymkent Art College after Kasteev. He worked as a head of the cycle of composition until 1989. From 1989 until now he has taught at the Kazakh National Academy of Arts named after T. Zhurgenov at the Department of Interior and Furniture Design. He is a core […]
Acell Shaldibayeva is an artist and DJ from Almaty, Kazakhstan. She is also the co-founder of the techno club bULt, which comprehends topics such as traditions and rituals, decolonial optics, queer feminism, and its place and role in the reality of Kazakhstan and Central Asia by regularly holding techno parties, film screenings of non-mainstream art films, supporting research and art projects, and conducting master classes, lectures, poetry readings and exhibitions. As a sound artist, Shaldibayeva was part of the ORTA […]
Aigerim Kapar is a Kazakh interdependent curator, interdisciplinary researcher and decolonial activist. She founded Artcom Platform, a Central Asian community-based contemporary art and public engagement organisation in 2015. Grassroots-driven agenda in Central Asia matters to her curatorial practice. With her team at Artcom Platform, Kapar curates and organises collaborative knowledge production, public art and science education, art interventions and research-based exhibitions. In 2017, Kapar initiated Art Collider, a school where art meets science bringing communities together around practices of care […]
Ulan Dzhaparov is an architect, independent contemporary art curator and artist from Bishkek. He graduated from the faculty of architecture, Frunze Polytechnic Institute in 1983. Currently, he works as the general director at the architectural studio ‘MUSEUM’ in Bishkek. As an artist, he uses various mediums including performance, video and graphics and participated in a number of international contemporary art exhibitions. As a curator, he has curated the annual Bishkek April Fools’ competitions since 2003, as well as the annual […]
Chong Chin-Yin is a Hong Kong- and Taiwan-based curator and co-founder of Arts Collective, a creative entity based in Hong Kong. Chong’s interests reside in the intersection of cultural influence, experience, artistic practice and community. Working collectively and independently, her recent research explores contemporary arts in geocultural contexts and transdisciplinary exchange and collaboration.
Chen King Yuen Joseph is an art and cultural organiser and artist based in Hong Kong, currently the Director of Culture at Eaton HK, a purpose-driven hospitality brand where he builds community for artists, changemakers and marginalised groups and creates cultural and creative initiatives to support locals and serve travellers. He is the co-founder of Virtue Village, an art initiative creating and curating art that connects humans to spirituality and intimacy, and navigates the planes of queer subculture, fetish and […]
Meder Akhmetov is an artist, architect, curator and member of the MUSEUM art group based in Central Asia. His artwork ranges from hand drawings and photo collages to outdoor public art. Akhmetov curates and organises workshops and public art events. Much of his work is based on working in a participatory workshop genre. During the pandemic in 2020, he initiated the self-organised online platform ‘art bazaar’ on Facebook.