Aziza Shadenova is a Kazakh artist born in Uzbekistan. She graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in 2011. The majority of her work is based around humour and absurdism involved in perception of life, memories, womanhood and immigration, often focusing on untangling of her roots and thoughts as an immigrant, a woman, a wife, an artist and as a human being. For her, these are observations and engagements with the past and present, and an investigation of how it may reflect on the future. The challenge is to see beyond the history and capture something that has been left in the NOW. She explains, ‘Nothing is outdated. I am trying to discover the beauty in the past because its outcome always leads to some new life.’
Shadenova was one of the few young artists featured in the Central Asian Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale (2013). She has participated in group shows at HOME gallery, Manchester (2017), EMMA Espoo Museum of Fine Arts in Finland (2016), Art15 art fair in London (2015), Sotheby’s (2014), Moscow Biennale (2014); as well as exhibitions in Russia, France, Switzerland, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, Argentina and the UK.