Saule Suleimenova
Saule Suleimenova was born in 1970 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and works across painting, graphics, and public art. A graduate of the Kazakh Leading Academy of Architecture and Civil Engineering (1996), her work explores collective memory, archives, and the semiotics of cities. Her recent Cellophane Paintings are made from used plastic bags, combining personal and political motifs. Recent exhibitions include the Lahore Biennale (2020), Andakulova Gallery Dubai (2021), Frac Grand Large Dunkirk (2023), and the Jeonbuk Museum of Art Korea (2023). In 2025, the artist is participating in the Bukhara Biennale. Her works are in collections of the Sharjah Art Foundation, the Servais Family Collection, the Eurasian Cultural Alliance and others.
SKY ABOVE ALMATY: QANDY QAŃTAR / BLOODY JANUARY
2022
plastic bags, hot silicone, polyethylene
Şağylys collection, developed by the Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture and M HKA
Sky Above Almaty: Qandy Qańtar / Bloody January is part of Suleimenova’s ongoing Skies Over series exploring the construction of Kazakh memory, both collective and individual. The impetus to make the work was the fatal event of Bloody January (Qandy Qańtar), when grass-roots protest in Almaty in 2022 against the policies of the ruling regime ended with a shoot-to-kill order. It is reported that 238 civilians were gunned down in this consolidation of authoritarian power. Shortly after, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine followed. For the artist, these events led to a sensation of being “flooded” by blood. Some might recognize the red-tinged Republic Square, the site of Bloody January, where darkness thickens overhead—fog, smoke, or even teargas. Suleimenova deliberately leaves the image devoid of details or people, to make it less literal amid multiple international crises.