Biography
Saule Suleimenova uses painting, photography, performance art and installation to navigate traditional Kazakh culture and the aesthetics of revolt by employing a wide range of media such as wax, plastic bags, scrap metal and cellophane.
Her work has been exhibited in several solo exhibitions, including The Last Hero of the Great Steppe: The Art of Saule Suleimenova, Andakulova Gallery, Dubai (2021); Ultimate Love, Art Korobka, Moscow (2020); Somewhere in the Great Steppe, National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan (2017); Steppe Pastoral plastic bags public art project, American university of Central Asia, Bishkek (2015); Cellophane painting, Artspace gallery, Almaty (2014); Kuanyshtyn Saulesi, Eastern Kazakhstan State Museum of Arts, Ust-Kamenogorsk (2013); and I’m Kazakh, Russkiy Mir gallery, Paris (2011).
She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, including The Decoloniality of Being, Knowledge and Sensation, Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture, Almaty (2020); Lahore Biennale (2020); About Nature: Natürlich Kunst, PlanetArt Festival of Nature, Kuhlhaus, Berlin (2019); Bread and Roses: Four Generations of Kazakh Women Artists, Kunstquartier Bethanie, Berlin (2018); Somewhere in the Great Steppe: Contemporary Art from Kazakhstan, Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art, Saint Petersburg (2017); Dis/Possessed. A Question of Spirit and Money, Manifesta 10, Zurich (2016); East of Nowhere: Contemporary Art from Post-Soviet Central Asia, Fondazione 107, Turin (2009); and Exhibition of Graphic and Prints of the Union of Artists of Kazakhstan, Almaty (2008).
Suleimenova’s awards include the Fellowship of the President of Kazakhstan (1998); Laureate of the Shabyt, Zhiger; and Tengri Umai. She was shortlisted for the Sovereign Asian Art Prize (2017) and nominated for the Singapore Art Prize (2017).
Her work can be found in the collections of MOMENTUM Collection, Berlin; National Museum of Kazakhstan; Christie’s, London; Russkiy Mir Gallery, Paris; and State Museum of Arts, Novosibirsk, Russia.
She earned a Degree in Design from the Almaty State Academy of Architecture and Construction (1996) and was awarded a Master of Art Criticism by the Kazakh National University of Arts (2013).
Suleimenova was born in 1970 in Almaty where she continues to live and work.
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Saule Suleimenova: Various works (2018)
Saule Suleimenova uses painting, photography, performance art and installation to navigate traditional Kazakh culture and the aesthetics of revolt by employing a wide range of media such as wax, plastic bags, scrap metal and cellophane.