Almaty, Kazakhstan | March 13, 2026 - Almaty Museum of Arts presents the second, culminating chapter of the retrospective exhibition I Understand Everything by Almagul Menlibayeva. The exhibition is curated by renowned Thai curator Gridthiya Gaweewong, Artistic Director of the Jim Thompson Art Center in Bangkok. The project is supported by the museum’s general partner Halyk Bank.

The project originally served as the inaugural exhibition of the museum, which opened in September 2025, and received wide international recognition. It was featured in ArtReview and ArtAsiaPacific, and ArtForum included it among the best exhibitions of the year. The museum now returns the exhibition in an updated format.

This is the first retrospective in Menlibayeva’s career and the most comprehensive overview of her artistic practice to date, spanning from the late 1980s to the present. According to the curatorial concept, the exhibition is divided into two chapters, allowing audiences to trace the evolution of the artist’s visual language.

Early paintings and graphic works form the historical core of the exhibition and remain unchanged in both chapters. These works capture a pivotal moment—the collapse of the Soviet system and the emergence of new identities. The second chapter transforms the visual landscape of the exhibition, presenting photographic works and key video installations by Menlibayeva, which are rarely shown in Kazakhstan.

The central work of the renewed display is the six-channel immersive installation Ulugbek, dedicated to the 15th-century ruler of Samarkand and astronomer Ulugh Beg. First presented at the Lahore Biennale in 2020, the work received high critical acclaim. In his review, Ali Nobil Ahmad wrote:

“Throughout the short history of contemporary art exhibitions in Pakistan, we have not seen anything comparable to this work in scale or in its philosophical and aesthetic complexity.”

The installation reflects on the intellectual history of Central Asia as a space of scientific imagination and the expansion of knowledge, offering a contemporary reinterpretation of the region’s legacy.

The second chapter also features the videos Milk for Lambs, Along the Caspian (a collaboration with Iranian artist Bahar Behbahani), and Exodus, as well as new photographic series and lightboxes titled My Silk Road to You, expanding the visual and conceptual scope of the project.

As the artist notes: “Dividing the exhibition into two phases allows the works to breathe and evolve, revealing new layers of personal and geopolitical reflection in the context of Kazakhstan.”

The second chapter of I Understand Everything is not only the culmination of a long artistic journey, but also a powerful statement about memory, identity, and the future of Central Asia.

The exhibition will run until May 17, 2026.