Almaty, September 7, 2026 — Almaty Museum of Arts (ALMA) announces the opening of one of the major exhibitions of the new season, “Müsinder: Sculpture of Kazakhstan from the 1950s to the Present Day.” The exhibition will be one of the central events marking ALMA’s first anniversary. The exhibition is presented in partnership with Atasu Group.

The exhibition in the Saryarqa Hall brings together more than 50 works by several generations of artists, including Khakimzhan Nauryzbayev, Isaak Itkind, Erkin Mergenov, Madina Zholdybek, Rysbek Akhmetov, Moldaqul Narymbetov, Erbossyn Meldibekov, Aruzhan Zhumabek, and others. The exhibition is curated by Dr. Aliya de Tiesenhausen, Doctor of Art History.

Sculpture holds an important place in the history of Kazakh art; however, major museum projects dedicated to the medium remain rare. “Müsinder” will be one of the most significant research projects on the sculpture of Kazakhstan in recent decades, spanning the period from academic works of the Soviet era to the experiments of contemporary artists.

At the same time, the exhibition does not claim to provide a comprehensive historical overview: it is impossible to present seven decades of sculptural development within a single project. Rather than following a chronological narrative, the curator proposes a thematic perspective centred on the human body and its relationship with society, memory, and history.

The exhibition’s title refers to the Kazakh word müsın, which means both “sculpture” and “human figure.” Through the image of the body, the exhibition explores society, family, historical memory, and the transformations that have taken place in Kazakhstan from the second half of the 20th century to the present day.

“While the exhibition as a whole offers a concise look at the history of Kazakhstan over the past seventy years, each individual work demonstrates how artists of different generations have expanded the understanding of what sculpture can be, what materials it can engage with, and what art is capable of expressing,” notes curator Aliya de Tiesenhausen.

Meruyert Kaliyeva, Artistic Director of Almaty Museum of Arts, emphasises: “For us, it was important to bring together works from museum and private collections, foundations, galleries, and artists’ studios in a single space in order to present the different trajectories of sculpture in Kazakhstan. At the same time, the exhibition is not concerned solely with history: five new works were created specifically for the project. This is an important part of ALMA’s strategy — not only to work with artistic heritage, but also to support the creation of new works by contemporary artists.”

The exhibition is structured around four thematic sections.

The first section, “A Play of Opposites?”, is dedicated to the period from the late 1950s to the early 1990s and explores the tension between officially accepted works and the freer artistic practices developed in artists’ studios. The wooden sculptures of Isaak Itkind and Erkin Mergenov’s bronze Self-Portrait (1971) demonstrate how a more individual language of sculptural form emerged within the Soviet artistic system.

The section “Family and the Connection Between Generations” examines the body through relationships between generations, images of motherhood, and familial warmth. Among the works presented are Liya Kolotilina’s Bakhyt (1989) and Askar Yessenbayev’s Embryo (1995), in which the image of an unborn child takes on particular significance in the context of the early years of the young country’s independence.

“History and Myth-Making” explores how the human figure becomes part of the formation of national memory. Moldakul Narymbetov’s balbals combine the visual tradition of the ancient Turks with the language of contemporary art, while Erbossyn Meldibekov’s Monument to an Unknown Hero (1997) raises questions about how images of heroes are created and transformed.

The final section of the exhibition, “Body and Society: Acceptance or Resistance,” is dedicated to contemporary artists who approach the human body as a space where personal experience, culture, and politics intersect, addressing themes that often remain unnoticed or unspoken. In Zoya Falkova’s Evermust (Always Must) (2017), a punching bag takes the form of a female torso. Through this image, the artist explores gender roles and the ways in which familiar models of upbringing can reinforce ideas of female patience, submissiveness, and the acceptance of violence as a norm. In her installation As Bol syn (2022–2026), Madina Zholdybek draws on the collective practice of making manty — a form of edible sculpture — transforming the process of preparation into a ritual that brings together women of different generations.

The project is presented with the support of Atasu Group, a company that systematically develops initiatives aimed at preserving and reinterpreting Kazakhstan’s artistic heritage.

As the company’s founder Marat Zhuman notes: “Atasu has been in logistics for twenty-eight years. We connect countries. But simply creating a route is not enough. A true connection happens between people. And that is no longer about logistics. That is why we are here. We are doing what we know how to do. We connect. Only this time, it is not cities we are connecting, but people. Müsinder presents seven decades of Kazakhstani sculpture, from the 1950s to the present day. It shows how the country has changed. How we ourselves have changed. It is also a kind of route, only through time.”

Almaty Museum of Arts extends its gratitude to the Abilkhan Kasteyev National Museum of Arts of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Satbayev University, as well as other public, institutional, and private collections for providing the works featured in the exhibition. We also thank the Republican State Institution “Central State Archive of Film, Photo Documents and Sound Recordings” for providing archival and video materials.

The exhibition Müsinder  will run from 8 September 2026 until May 2027. The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue in Kazakh, Russian, and English, featuring scholarly texts by the exhibition’s curator Dr. Aliya de Tiesenhausen and art historians Valeriya Ibrayeva and Alexandra Tsay.