Almaty, Kazakhstan | November 25, 2025 – The Almaty Museum of Arts proudly presents Miracle (2023), an installation by Kazakhstani artist Baqyt Bubikanova (1985–2023). Created for the Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile (CHAT) in Hong Kong, the work became the artist’s final major project and is being showcased in Kazakhstan for the first time. In 2025, Miracle entered the collection of the Almaty Museum of Arts, becoming one of the museum’s most significant recent acquisitions and fully aligning with its mission to support, preserve, and promote contemporary Kazakhstani art.

Miracle is a large-scale spatial installation executed in mixed media. The composition features hand-painted wooden panels, a decorative arch, ornamental fabrics, felt, and a central light object – a star woven from branches and translucent fabric. The work brings together painting, objecthood, and scenography, transforming the space into a symbolic realm where image and materiality become one.

Baqyt Bubikanova – affectionately nicknamed “Bakha-Festival” by her classmates for her drive and creative audacity – emerged as one of the defining voices of a new generation of Kazakhstani artists. Trained as a sculptor at the Kazakh National Academy of Arts, she transformed her “plastic thinking” into the fields of painting, installation, video, and performance. Her practice reflects the paradoxes of everyday life and the sociocultural transformations taking place in the country amid rapid economic growth. She freely combined the local and the global, deconstructing and reinterpreting enduring images and symbols of “Central Asian identity.”

Bubikanova spoke about her practice: “My work develops in layers. Each layer is like archaeology: you dig deeper, and each time something new is revealed.”

The installation Miracle became the artist’s final completed work, created shortly before her passing at the age of 38. The installation will be presented in Art Street at the Almaty Museum of Arts beginning on November 25, 2025.

Meruyert Kaliyeva, Artistic Director of the Almaty Museum of Arts: “Art Street at the Almaty Museum of Arts was designed by Chapman Taylor architects as an open space filled with natural light. Inspired by the landscapes of the Charyn Canyon, this area not only welcomes visitors and connects the museum’s galleries, but also invites people to sit, rest, and spend time with friends. We also plan to use the Art Street as a vibrant exhibition platform for large-scale installations and artistic statements. It is no coincidence that the first project in this series is a work by Baqyt Bubikanova. She was a vivid and extraordinary personality – a true comet that passed far too quickly but left a profound mark on Central Asian art. We are proud that her installation Miracle is now part of the museum’s collection and will greet our visitors. And we sincerely hope that Baqyt’s art, like this work itself, will continue to inspire people to believe in miracles.”

On November 25, 2025, at 18:30, the Al-Farabi Hall at Almaty Museum of Arts will host a lecture “Baqyt Bubikanova and Her ‘Performodrome’ of Everyday Life” by art historian Yulia Sorokina, dedicated to Baqyt Bubikanova. The lecture will be held in Russian with simultaneous translation into Kazakh.

Ticket price: 2,000 KZT (includes museum admission)

Tickets: link