Shiru-Shakar is a folk ensemble of women performers dedicated to preserving and promoting the musical heritage of Bukhara. The group focuses on traditional genres such as mavrigi and bukhorcha, bringing together musicians, dancers, and scholars in a collaborative effort. Founded by Mashraf Kadyrov, the ensemble is artistically directed by Mashhura Kadyrova, with musical leadership by Manzura Kenzhaeva and Hamid Ashurov. Choreographic work is led by Sofia Mamadkulova and Odilbek Toshpulatov. The ensemble’s commitment to authenticity is supported by folklorist Gulchira Mamedova and cultural historian Munavvar Abdullaeva. Vocalist Makhfirat Amanova embodies the vocal traditions at the core of Shiru-Shakar’s performances.

Founded in 2018;  based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Hylozoic/Desires (Himali Singh Soin and David Soin Tappeser) collaborate on 

interdisciplinary works that blend poetic performance, sound art, and interdisciplinary installations to explore themes of deep time, impermanence, and interconnectedness. Their collaborative practice bridges speculative storytelling and sonic experimentation, crafting immersive worlds that blur boundaries between myth, history, and the natural world. Soin’s literary and conceptual background as a poet intertwines with Tappeser’s mastery of rhythm and musicality as a composer, creating works that resonate as meditative journeys through space and thought.

Engaging with ecological narratives, cosmic imaginaries, and cultural memory, their art questions humanity’s relationship with the natural world and the cosmos. Their practice invites reflection on the fragility and life’s persistence in an era of transformation.

Singh Soin: b. 1987, New Delhi, India; based in London, UK / New Delhi,  India
Tappeser: b. 1985, Munich, Germany; based in London, UK / New Delhi, India

Slavs and Tatars is a collective whose multidisciplinary practice spans installations, lecture-performances, and publications. Their name reflects the cultural and political complexities of the region between the former Berlin Wall and the Great Wall of China, known as Eurasia. With a particular focus on Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Caucasus, the collective uses in-depth research, wit, and polemics to explore the performative and political nature of language and identity.

Their playful yet critical approach reimagines traditional cultural symbols, transforming them into tools for contemporary commentary and reflection. By blending popular culture, spiritual and esoteric traditions, oral histories, modern myths, and scholarly research, they open new pathways for contemporary discourse.

Founded in 2006; based in Berlin, Germany

Igshaan Adams’s tactile, intricate works weave together elements of performance, sculpture, and installation. Drawing from his upbringing in South Africa’s Cape Flats, Adams explores themes of identity, spirituality, and the entanglements of race, religion, and the human condition. His practice combines materials like rope, beads, fabric, and found objects to create dynamic compositions that bridge traditional craft and contemporary art. Likening these materials’ potential for transformation to his own potential for evolution, Adams is engaged in broadening his ideas of selfhood in an ongoing process of covering and uncovering, doing and undoing.

Adams’ works are deeply rooted in his personal and cultural histories, reflecting on the intersections of Islamic traditions, Sufi spirituality, and the challenges of navigating hybrid identities. His art resonates as both a celebration of resilience and a meditation on the complexities of belonging and transformation.  

b. 1982, Cape Town, South Africa; based in Cape Town, South Africa

Raykhon Akramova is an emerging choreographer raised in a creative family. Influenced by her mother and aunt, she works in both traditional and modern dance forms. She is dedicated to restoring Bukhara’s ancient dance practices and carrying them forward within the ustoz-shogird (master-apprentice) method.

b. 2009, Navoiy, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Majid Al-Remaihi’s work explores the construction and fragmentation of historical narratives within the Arabian Gulf. Through film, photography, and installation, he reflects on how memory, myth, and documentation intersect to shape understandings of place and identity. His practice navigates the space between personal and collective histories, often examining how stories are preserved, reimagined, or lost over time.

Drawing from archival materials and lived experience, Al-Remaihi unravels the layered processes through which history is written and rewritten. His work invites reflection on absence, impermanence, and the shifting nature of truth, offering a nuanced lens on the cultural and emotional legacies of a region in transformation.

b. 1995, Doha, Qatar; based in Paris, France

Khadim Ali’s practice encompasses painting, miniature art, and tapestry, addressing themes of war, displacement, and the fragility of cultural memory. Drawing from his Hazara heritage, Ali reimagines traditional techniques to explore narratives of loss and strength, weaving together mythological references and contemporary struggles.

Through his intricately detailed works, Ali challenges dominant histories, creating space for marginalized voices and stories. His work highlights the power of storytelling in the face of adversity. The artist works collaboratively as a way to transmit knowledge and to also share the healing process of making art with marginalized communities who participate in creating his work. 

b. 1978, Quetta, Pakistan; based in Sydney, Australia

Ahmad Angawi’s practice bridges traditional craftsmanship with a contemporary approach, reflecting his deep connection to his heritage and community in Saudi Arabia. Rooted in the principles of balance (Al Mizan) and sustainability, and inspired by sacred geometry, Angawi’s work incorporates local materials, artisanal techniques, and cultural designs to create pieces that are both functional and symbolic.

Angawi’s projects often explore themes of cultural dialogue, heritage preservation, and the relationship between traditional and contemporary ways of life. His innovative approach reimagines design as a bridge between communities, celebrating the continuity and evolution of craft traditions in the contemporary world.

b. 1981, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Ahmad Arabov is a fifth-generation master embroiderer dedicated to the revival of traditional suzani embroidery in Uzbekistan. With over four decades of experience, he has restored more than 30 historical embroidery patterns and mastered natural dye techniques for silk threads. His work includes embroidered textiles such as suzanis, miniatures, garments, and decorative panels. Arabov also founded a workshop that trains young artisans and supports the transmission of embroidery knowledge to future generations. With a strong commitment to cultural preservation, he has trained over 120 students, ensuring the continuity of Uzbekistan’s textile heritage.

b. 1955, Bukhara, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Komil Aslanov is a classical and maqom musician. Inspired by his elder brother, he trained in traditional Uzbek and European music. Deeply committed to cultural transmission, he considers it his duty to pass on the classical melodies of his youth to new generations of students.

b. 1959, Bukhara, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Tarek Atoui is a multidisciplinary artist and composer known for his experimental approach to sound, performance, and listening. His work transforms sound into a physical, tactile, and communal experience, challenging conventional ideas of music and perception.

Rooted in research, Atoui explores the cultural, historical, and sensory dimensions of sound. Collaborating with musicians, craftspeople, and diverse communities, he develops custom instruments and immersive soundscapes through participatory processes. His practice bridges cultural and sensory differences, opening new ways of experiencing and understanding sound.

b. 1980, Beirut, Lebanon; based in Paris, France

Rauf Avezov is a performer, director, and cultural producer with over three decades of experience dedicated to preserving and revitalising Bukhara’s intangible heritage. Since the 1990s, he has led expeditions, performances, and major festivals centred on traditional music and dance, particularly the mavrigi and bukhorcha repertoires. 

He is the co-founder and artistic director of the international festival Silk and Spices, and currently serves as director of the Bukhara branch of the Uzbekistan State Philharmonic. His work bridges research and stagecraft, drawing from classical poetry, folklore, and living oral traditions. Avezov has collaborated with artists, scholars, and institutions internationally, and continues to shape the public visibility of Bukharan performing arts.

b. 1966, Bukhara, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Vahap Avşar’s practice engages with the ways images carry, conceal, or reshape meaning over time. Working with photography, installation, and print, he draws from state archives, found materials, and commercial ephemera to reflect on how histories are constructed and how official narratives often obscure as much as they reveal.

Through minimal interventions and shifts in context, Avşar traces the quiet presence of censorship, absence, and memory. His work invites a slower reading of familiar images, revealing the tensions between personal experience and institutional control, and offering space for what might otherwise remain unseen.

b. 1965, Malatya, Turkey; based in New York, USA

Dana Awartani’s practice bridges traditional Islamic art forms with contemporary conceptual approaches. Awartani’s focus on ancient, time-consuming techniques like embroidery, weaving, and tile-making promotes mindfulness and attention to the process, creating a sense of slow time that contrasts with the rush of modern life. 

Awartani’s work emphasizes the healing power of reclaiming ancestral knowledge and traditions. By resurrecting and reinterpreting these cultural practices, Awartani seeks to offer a pathway to emotional and spiritual recovery, especially in the context of displacement, loss, and identity struggles faced by her community. Her installations and performances, often involving participatory elements, invite the audience to engage in the act of creation, promoting collective healing through shared experience.

b. 1987, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; based in New York, USA

Aziza Azim is an art director whose work bridges contemporary aesthetics, storytelling, and cultural preservation. She is the founder of the brand Azi.land and the creative studio Azi.Studio, through which she explores design as a form of cultural continuity and mindful creation. 

Her practice blends contemporary sensibility with handcrafted detail, reflecting a commitment to longevity, material clarity, and narrative design. Her projects celebrate the artistic legacy and evolving aesthetics of Central Asia, and draw connections between South and Central Asian traditions of craft and healing.

b. 1991, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; based in Moscow, Russia

Bakhtiyar Babamuradov is an artisan and restoration architect. His practice focuses on traditional techniques, including mosaic work and ganch carving, a traditional Central Asian technique of intricate plasterwork, with an emphasis on sustaining artisanal knowledge and passing it on to the next generation. 

He worked on the restoration of such iconic landmarks of Bukahra, such as the Kalyan Minaret, Mir-i Arab Madrasah, and the Sufi complex of Bahauddin Naqshband. A member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), he participates in international projects dedicated to safeguarding historic monuments in Uzbekistan and across Central Asia.

b. 1960, Bukhara, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

is a choreographer and multidisciplinary artist. Raised in a family of performing artists, she plays the dutor and piano, sings, and explores diverse dance styles. She is especially focused on reviving and transmitting Bukhara’s ancient dance traditions through the ustoz-shogird (master-apprentice) method.

b. 1984, Bukhara, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Louis Barthélemy’s practice merges textiles, illustration, and storytelling to explore themes of cultural identity and social commentary. His work celebrates traditional artisanship while addressing issues of migration, heritage, and sustainability.

Through vibrant tapestries and illustrations, Barthélemy connects the past with the present, creating narratives that honor community and craft. His approach is deeply informed by cultural research and collaborations with artisans from regions where traditional techniques are still alive. Collaborating extensively with artisans in North Africa, Barthélemy reinterprets ancestral techniques in contemporary ways, honoring the value of hand-based knowledge and fostering a deeper connection between cultures.

b. 1988, Paris, France; based in Marrakech, Morocco / Cairo, Egypt

Malika Berdiyarova is a textile artisan specialising in macramé weaving. Working with knotted threads, she creates intricate designs and complex forms. With a growing practice shaped by nearly two years of experience, she explores the structural possibilities of fibre through detailed, handcrafted work.

b. 1998, Tashkent, Uzbekistan; based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Fatmata Binta is a chef whose work explores the cultural, historical, and ecological dimensions of West African cuisine. Drawing from traditions shaped by the nomadic life of one of West Africa’s largest ethnic groups, the Fulani people, her approach to cooking highlights traditional knowledge systems, indigenous ingredients, and the relationships between food, land, and migration. Through immersive dining experiences and community-based projects, she creates space for storytelling, connection, and cultural exchange.

Binta draws attention to the ways in which food carries memory and identity, while also addressing issues of sustainability, displacement, and access. Her work reclaims overlooked narratives within African culinary heritage, offering meals that nourish not just the body, but also shared histories and futures. 

b. 1985, Freetown, Sierra Leone; based in Accra, Ghana

Mathieu Bissonnette is an artist and designer whose practice explores the creation of digital beings, new narrative mediums, kinetic sculptures and digital interactive human portraits. Working across game engines, simulation, and sculpture, he explores how artificial consciousness and human subjectivity intersect. His recent projects include digital twins that respond to real-time data and immersive narrative environments developed in collaboration with artists and institutions.

b. 1987, Montreal, Canada; based in London, UK

Throughout his practice, Jahongir Bobokulov explores the interplay of space and air. After years of experimenting with materials and techniques, he developed a distinctive abstract style, using polyurethane foam in place of canvas. Applying colour with an airbrush, Bobokulov creates ethereal compositions that reflect his perception of spatial depth and atmosphere. While much of his work is abstract, he has also developed a series inspired by the vernacular architecture of his native Bukhara, capturing the sun-drenched textures of its ancient alleyways.

The meditative and spiritual quality of his large-scale works invites viewers to engage with them on a metaphysical level, offering a contemplative, prayer-like experience of building connections beyond the visual.

b. 1996, Bukhara, Uzbekistan; based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Behzod Boltaev is a documentary photographer and filmmaker whose practice focuses on capturing everyday life and the cultural landscape of his native Bukhara. Drawn to photography from an early age, he carries on the legacy of the Bukharan school of documentary photography, pioneered by his father, Shavkat Boltaev. 

A strong visual storyteller, Boltaev documents the people of Bukhara, their community life, intangible traditions, and the contemporary realities of Uzbekistan. In addition to his artistic practice, Boltaev manages the photo gallery founded by his father, which promotes the work of notable Bukharan photographers, operates as an international art residency and hosts photography workshops.

b. 1996, Bukhara, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Abdulvahid Bukhoriy is a ceramic artist dedicated to reviving Uzbekistan’s historic pottery traditions, particularly Bukharan blue ceramics and the ishkor glaze recipe, which had been lost in the twentieth century.

Deeply engaged with museum collections and national heritage, he works with local clays from the Bukhara region and traditional techniques, creating contemporary pieces rooted in history. Bukhoriy also participates in restoration projects, seeking a balance between innovation, cultural memory, and the enduring values of craft. He is dedicated to passing on his knowledge to apprentices and plans to open a school to preserve the tradition of Bukharan blue ceramics.

b. 1977, Bukhara, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Sabina Burkhanova preserves the ancient craft of silk carpet weaving, rooted in the traditions of the Bukhara region. A fifth-generation artisan, she returned to Bukhara after studying in London to continue the family practice and established one of Bukhara’s most successful carpet workshops, in addition to raising eight children. She specialises in finely woven silk carpets with short piles, characterised by distinctive Bukharan patterns and natural dyes. Her workshop also makes carpets from cotton and wool. 

Committed to sustaining this intricate craft, Burkhanova has trained hundreds of apprentices, ensuring that the knowledge and techniques of Bukhara’s weaving heritage are carried forward. Although the carpet trade was disrupted during the Soviet period, the success of her workshop stands as a testament to the enduring entrepreneurial spirit of Bukharan artisans.

b. 1990, Bukhara, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Hera Büyüktaşcıyan’s work interweaves themes of memory, displacement, and the layered histories of spaces and identities. Drawing from personal narratives and collective cultural heritage, Büyüktaşcıyan works with site specific interventions, sculpture, drawing and film to explore the tensions between visibility and erasure as well as permanence and impermanence. Looking at material as a vessel for memory, her work addresses how societies process, embody and transform grief and absence.

Her practice is deeply rooted in research, often engaging with the architectural and sociopolitical histories of specific sites to reveal hidden stories and forgotten connections. Her works invite viewers to contemplate the cyclical nature of history and the endurance of memory. 

b. 1984, Istanbul, Turkey; based in Istanbul, Turkey

Qu Chang’s multidisciplinary practice interrogates the complexities of language, cultural translation, and the construction of knowledge through curation and research. Chang explores themes of history, mythology, and the shifting dynamics of values in Chinese society. Her works often take the form of exhibitions, installations, publications, and conceptual interventions that challenge conventional modes of understanding and representation.

Chang’s curatorial and artistic projects reflect a deep engagement with speculative narratives and critical inquiry, creating platforms for dialogue across diverse cultural contexts. Her curatorial practice often integrates themes of love and healing through an emphasis on storytelling, intimacy, and collective care. She approaches curation as a way to foster spaces of empathy, where the audience and artists can engage in meaningful exchanges that transcend the boundaries of traditional art spaces.

b. 1988, Sichuan, China; based in Berlin, Germany

Yun Choi’s work explores the beliefs, fantasies, and everyday experiences that shape social and cultural life. Working across sculpture, installation, video, performance, ceramics, and printmaking, she reflects on ideas of hybrid identity and modern life through both personal and collective perspectives.

Her practice looks at how traditional culture and digital technologies meet in contemporary Korean society—a place marked by rapid change, deep divisions, and ongoing reinvention. Through her work, she captures the emotional and sometimes surreal effects of living in a time shaped by both acceleration and delay, offering a glimpse into the complexity of the present moment.

b. 1989, Seoul, South Korea; based in South[1]  Korea

Liu Chuang’s practice spans installation, video, and performance to interrogate the intersections of technology, economy, and sociopolitical structures. His works often delve into the hidden narratives of globalization and urbanization, blending personal histories with systemic critiques. Sometimes described as an explorer-artist, his poetic practice stitches fact and fiction together, linking together what appear to be seemingly disparate research findings into speculations on the underlying patterns of human civilization.

Chuang’s work explores how technology mediates human experiences, often highlighting how digital tools transform cultural and individual identities. This is evident in his installations that overlay human narratives with mechanical or digital processes, speaking to the tension between humanity and mechanization.

b. 1978, Hubei, China; based in Shanghai, China

Bahriddin Chustiy’s practice bridges culinary craft and cultural heritage, using food as a medium for storytelling and shared memory. Dedicated to preserving and promoting Uzbekistan’s rich culinary traditions, he regularly organises large-scale gastronomic events and masterclasses, both in Uzbekistan and abroad. In 2017, he led the preparation of a record-breaking seven-tonne serving of plov in Tashkent, an achievement recognised by the Guinness World Records.

Chustiy has authored several cookbooks in Uzbek, English, and Russian, including a comprehensive volume dedicated to Uzbek flatbreads, a gastronomic guidebook to Uzbekistan, and a recipe book for kindergartens.

b. 1984, Chust, Uzbekistan; based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Lilian Cordell is a chef and cultural storyteller whose work preserves the culinary traditions of Bukharian Jewish communities. Drawing from family recipes passed down through generations, she shares a cuisine shaped by Central Asian, Persian, and Jewish influences rooted in migration, memory, and everyday ritual. 

Her approach to food reflects the rhythms of communal life, where cooking becomes a way to honor ancestry and maintain cultural continuity. Through her work, Cordell highlights how recipes carry histories, sustaining identity across time and place.

b. 1957, London, UK; based in London, UK

The Margilan Crafts Development Centre supports the preservation and transmission of traditional atlas and adras weaving in Uzbekistan. Located in the historic Sayid Akhmad Khoja madrassah, the center continues Margilan’s centuries-old silk-making heritage. It is represented by master weavers Rasuljon Mirzaakhmedov, Alisher Akhmadaliev, Murodjon Khoshimov, and Sherzodjon Goziyev. Today, over 500 artisans produce adras, beqasam, and ikat fabrics, supported by 3,000 apprentices and family members. In 2017, the centre’s weaving practices were included in UNESCO’s Good Safeguarding Practices for Intangible Cultural Heritage.

founded in 2007 in Margilan, Uzbekistan

Denis Davydov is a multimedia artist interested in the symbolic legacy of the early Internet era and the migration of eclectic visual languages from Central Asia into the contemporary context of late capitalism.

Working with computer-generated imagery (CGI), Davydov explores retroactive nostalgia for vanishing images of national cultures, particularly those of Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Tajikistan. His practice investigates the collision of twentieth-century historical narratives and constructed notions of cultural authenticity and craft with new media, including an ongoing interest in the aesthetics and critical implications of digital culture. 

b. 1985, Tashkent, Uzbekistan; based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan / Hong Kong, China / Moscow, Russia

Zuri Camille de Souza’s practice explores the relationships between food, ecology, and collective care. Working across cooking, storytelling, and community-based projects, she uses food as a medium to examine the politics of nourishment, land, and belonging. Her work often unfolds through shared meals, foraging walks, and sensory experiences that center slowness, reciprocity, and the rhythms of the natural world.

Rooted in seasonal cycles and ancestral knowledge, de Souza’s approach invites reflection on how food can hold memory, foster connection, and challenge extractive systems. Through her site-responsive practice, she cultivates spaces where intimacy and interdependence shape the act of eating into a gesture of resistance, healing, and cultural continuity.

b. 1991, Goa, India; based in Marseille, France 

Binta Diaw’s practice addresses themes of migration, identity, and the African diaspora. Working with natural and cultural materials such as hair, earth, and textiles, Diaw creates installations that speak to collective memory, belonging, and resilience. Her works offer powerful reflections on the lived experiences of Black bodies in historical and contemporary contexts.

She often incorporates seeds in her work as symbols of growth and ancestral memory, highlighting the interconnectedness of nature and culture. Through her use of materials, symbolism, and creation of immersive environments, Diaw creates spaces where reflection and dialogue can foster emotional and psychological recovery.

b. 1995, Milan, Italy; based in Milan, Italy

Coen Dieleman is a chef whose work explores the essence of ingredients through a minimalist and sensory-focused approach to cooking. As head chef at Brutalisten, he collaborates with artist Carsten Höller to create dishes that emphasize purity, restraint, and direct engagement with flavor. Each dish is built around a single main ingredient and salt, challenging conventional ideas of preparation and presentation.

Guided by the principle that less can reveal more, Dieleman’s approach invites diners to experience food in its most elemental form. His approach blurs the line between cooking and conceptual practice, turning the act of eating into a heightened, reflective encounter with taste, texture, and memory.

b. 1994, Netherlands[1] ; based in Stockholm, Sweden

Caravane Earth is a multidisciplinary project that integrates sustainable agriculture, traditional crafts, and contemporary design to create a harmonious balance between ecology and community. Located on the outskirts of Doha, Qatar,  its Heenat Salma farm initiative serves as a living laboratory for regenerative farming practices and cultural preservation. It emphasizes organic cultivation methods, local materials, and artisanship  to foster a deeper connection between people and the natural environment.

Beyond its agricultural mission, Caravane Earth hosts workshops, residencies, and exhibitions that explore the intersections of art, design, and sustainability, bridging ancestral knowledge with modern innovation.

Founded 2018; based in Al Shahaniya, Qatar

Ekaterina Enileeva is a Tashkent-born restaurateur who grew up in a family of cooks, spending much of her childhood in her father’s restaurant. She began her independent career at the age of seventeen and has since worked with renowned culinary projects and chefs across Doha, Dubai, and Paris—including training under Alain Ducasse at Le Meurice and Plaza Athénée. Since 2016, she has been leading the development of fine dining in Tashkent, honouring the legacy of her late father and continuing the path that first inspired her.
 

b. Tashkent, Uzbekistan; based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Bekhbaatar Enkhtur creates sculptures and installations using a variety of materials, including soft, easy-to-shape substances like clay and beeswax, as well as robust materials such as aluminum. His work draws inspiration from the myths and traditions of his native Mongolia and the broader regions of Central and East Asia.

Influenced by ancient Central Asian sculpting techniques, Enkhtur’s choice of materials, some of which naturally decay over time, allows him to explore themes of impermanence and the fragile nature of life. His art reflects his interest in cycles of change, transformation, and rebirth. By pushing the limits of materials and emphasizing the physical act of creation, Enkhtur challenges conventional thinking and encourages viewers to consider the interconnectedness of many different forms of life across time and space.

b. 1994, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; based in Turin, Italy

Yunus Farmonov is a watercolour artist whose work focuses on the architectural heritage and everyday environments of Bukhara. His paintings document traditional houses, courtyards, bathhouses, and market streets, emphasising their material presence and cultural significance. Through watercolour, he captures light, texture, and spatial atmosphere, using the medium’s transparency to convey subtle transitions of tone and time. Farmonov’s practice reflects a deep engagement with Uzbekistan’s built environment and aims to preserve visual memory through art. 

 b. 1994, Qorako‘l, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Pavel Georganov is a chef whose practice is grounded in a deep commitment to exploring and reimagining the bright flavours of Central Asian ingredients. The mastermind behind bespoke fine dining experiences in Uzbekistan and abroad, Georganov leads a team that brings together diverse culinary traditions, nostalgic flavours, and experimental interpretations of familiar dishes.

Of Ukrainian-Russian heritage, he was born in Belarus and lived across the former Soviet space before settling in Uzbekistan. Much of his approach is inspired by his upbringing, family memory, and the quiet resourcefulness of grandmothers who always found ways to nourish, despite hardship. Considering Uzbekistan his second homeland, he is deeply engaged with its food culture, guided by an intimate understanding of its flavours, ingredients, and traditions.

b. 1978, Brest, Belarus; based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Laila Gohar’s work blends food, art, and performance to explore themes of celebration, ritual, and cultural identity. Through her large-scale, edible installations and immersive dining experiences, Gohar transforms food into a medium for storytelling, evoking emotions and sparking conversation about the role of food in everyday life and special occasions.

Her practice combines elements of design, architecture, and art, creating works that challenge the way we perceive food as both a material and a cultural symbol. Through her creative collaborations, Gohar invites viewers and participants to reflect on the deeper connections between food, memory, and communal experiences, turning meals into powerful experiences that engage the senses and the imagination.

b. 1988, Cairo, Egypt; based in New York, USA

Rajyashri Goody’s practice explores the intersections of food, caste, and resistance. Drawing from Dalit histories (historically marginalized communities under the Indian caste system),

 and personal experience, she uses cooking, writing, ceramics, and installation to examine how food can act as both a tool of oppression and a form of quiet defiance. Her work often traces how access, memory, and ritual are shaped by caste-based hierarchies, revealing the layered meanings held within everyday ingredients and practices.

By engaging with recipes, oral histories, and inherited knowledge, Goody reflects on how food carries not just nourishment but also power, identity, and protest. Through acts of making and sharing, she opens space for reflection on dignity, exclusion, and the subtle forms of resistance embedded in daily life.

b. 1990, Pune, India; based in Goa, India and Amsterdam, Netherlands

Antony Gormley is widely acclaimed for his sculptures, installations and public artworks that investigate the relationship of the human body to space. His work has developed the potential opened up by sculpture through a critical engagement with both his own body and those of others in a way that confronts fundamental questions of where human beings stand in relation to nature and the cosmos. 

Gormley continually tries to identify the space of art as a place of becoming in which new behaviors, thoughts and feelings can arise. He studied meditation in South Asia in the 1970s prior to attending art school, and this is his first project in Central Asia that comes 50 years after he first tried to visit Uzbekistan for the first time. 

b. 1950, London, UK; based in London, UK

Fazliddin Gulov is a musician and a master of traditional Uzbek intruments tanbur and setor. He began studying music at age five under his father’s guidance. After graduating from Bukhara Music College, he focused on tanbur performance. He currently works at the Bukhara branch of the Uzbek National Maqom Art Center, where he trains young musicians and preserves the region’s maqom traditions.

b. 1967, Bukhara, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Subodh Gupta’s work is inspired by the lives of migrant communities in India. Growing up in Bihar, Gupta observed the centrality of cooking and communal eating in sustaining families, especially among those seeking better opportunities. His iconic use of stainless steel utensils—ubiquitous in Indian households—transforms these everyday items into metaphors for migration, labor, and cultural memory.

Gupta’s installations and sculptures reflect themes of home, displacement, and belonging, offering a poignant lens on resilience and aspirations. By elevating the material culture of India’s working class, Gupta bridges the gap between personal stories and contemporary art. His works celebrate the role of food and cooking in anchoring identities and fostering connection amidst change.

b. 1964, Khagaul, India; based in Gurgaon, India

Pakui Hardware is the collaborative duo of Ugnius Gelguda and Neringa Černiauskaitė, and is widely acclaimed for their sculptures, installations, and conceptual works that explore the intersections of technology, biology, and the human condition. Their practice critically examines the evolving relationship between bodies—both organic and synthetic—and the environments they inhabit in ways that confront fundamental questions about the implications of technological advancement on life and nature. Pakui Hardware continually creates speculative spaces where the boundaries between human, machine, and nature blur, inviting viewers to contemplate the future of embodiment and ecological interdependence.

The duo’s work engages with contemporary scientific and technological developments, reflecting their interest in materiality, transformation, and hybridity. Their practice pushes the potential of sculpture and installation as places where new behaviors, thoughts, and feelings can emerge.

Founded in 2014; based in Vilnius, Lithuania 

Samah Hijawi’s work explores the connections between food, memory and the cosmos, tracing how knowledge is carried through ingredients, stories, and time. Working across performance, installation, collage, and text, she draws on historical narratives to reflect on how the past continues to shape the present. Her work moves beyond simplified or polarized views, creating space for reflection, ritual, and new ways of imagining the world.

Rice often appears in her work as a symbol of both nourishment and transmission, an ingredient that has traveled across regions, carrying science, philosophy, and belief with it. Inspired by ancient cosmologies and the phrase “as above, so below,” Hijawi looks at how food connects the body to the land and the sky, grounding her practice in a poetic search for meaning across the visible and invisible.

b. 1976, Kuwait City, Kuwait; based in Brussels, Belgium

Carsten Höller’s practice explores perception, human behavior, and sensory experience through interactive installations and participatory works. Extending these ideas into the realm of food, he founded Brutalisten, a restaurant created in collaboration with Chef Coen Dieleman, where each dish focuses on a single ingredient prepared with minimal intervention to heighten sensory awareness.

Drawing from his background in biology, Höller creates unconventional dining events, edible sculptures, and immersive environments that heighten awareness of flavor, smell, and social interaction. By disrupting familiar habits, his work invites participants to reconsider food as both a personal and collective experience, blurring the boundaries between art, science, and everyday life.

 b. 1961, Brussels, Belgium; based in Stockholm, Sweden

Kei Imazu’s intricate, digital-inspired works merge the historical with the speculative, creating surreal visual landscapes that draw inspiration from her time growing up in Japan and her current life in Indonesia. Drawing from art history, mythology, and contemporary culture, Imazu reconfigures traditional motifs into layered compositions that speak to the fluidity of time and meaning.

Her practice interrogates the relationships between past, present, and future, blending figuration with abstraction to evoke a sense of wonder and introspection. Her works contain elements of global environmental issues, eco-feminism, mythology, history, and politics that are overlaid on the same plane, creating dynamic forms of artistic expression created by the vast amount of images and information passing through her body.

b. 1980, Yamaguchi, Japan; based in Bandung, Indonesia

Gulnoza Irgasheva is a multidisciplinary artist working across moving image, filmmaking, audio, performance, photography, and curating. Her distinctive practice centres on a participatory approach, in which decision-making is decentralised and all cast members are actively involved throughout the filmmaking process—from development to distribution.

Irgasheva’s work explores women’s everyday practices and their resilience within domestic spaces. She is also concerned with relationships to land and how care and kindness towards it might be restored. Drawing on methods of understanding the world through life experience, she unpacks layers of family history and intergenerational experience.

b. 1997, Namangan, Uzbekistan; based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Eva Jospin works across sculpture, installation, and drawing to explore themes of landscape, memory, and architecture. Her intricate, layered environments draw viewers into spaces where the beauty of nature and the passage of time are reimagined through crafted forms and textures.

Rooted in a deep engagement with artisanship and historical references, Jospin invites traditional artisans to apply their skills in new and unexpected ways. Drawing inspiration from classical gardens, mythology, and the Romantic tradition, she creates works that feel both familiar and dreamlike, blurring the boundary between reality and imagination.

b. 1975, Paris, France; based in Paris, France

Bakhshillo Jumaev is a sixth-generation artisan and one of the leading figures in the preservation of the Bukhara school of zarduzlik, the art of gold embroidery. Known for his large-scale embroidered panels, he works by hand, reviving endangered techniques and motifs drawn from the region’s classical visual language. Historically, these opulent designs adorned garments and accessories for the emir's court, and today they remain one of Bukhara’s most recognisable crafts.

Jumaev founded a master-apprentice school and has since trained over 500 students in the art of gold embroidery. In 2022, he published The Art of Gold Embroidery, a comprehensive book on the history, techniques, and contemporary practice of zarduzlik. 

b. 1956, Bukhara, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan[1] [2] 

Shonazar Jumaev is an artisan committed to preserving the traditions of the Bukharan school of woodcarving. Trained by his father and brother, he specialises in the carving of architectural elements such as wooden columns and muqarnas—the stalactite-like vaulting found on columns and cornices. Characterised by geometric patterns, intricate motifs, and precise ornamental detailing, the Bukharan tradition of woodcarving helped shape the architectural identity of the city. 

Jumaev’s practice is closely tied to restoration work, and he has contributed to the conservation of significant monuments in Bukhara, including the Khoja Zainuddin Mosque, the Abu Hafs Kabir Mosque, and the Bahauddin Naqshbandi Complex.

 b. 1972, Bukhara, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Ilyor Jumayev is a second-generation master woodcarver who carries on the traditional carving techniques passed down through his family. He began learning the craft at the age of fourteen under the guidance of his uncle, master Shonazar Jumayev. Working primarily with wood, he produces carved boxes, plates, chests, frames, panjara screens, and other functional objects known for their intricate detail and craftsmanship. He runs his own workshop and trains a new generation of artisans, continuing the legacy of Bukharan woodcarving.

 b. 1989, Vabkent district, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Muqaddas Jumayeva is a master embroiderer whose practice continues the rich tradition of Bukhara gold embroidery. Active since the late 1970s, she specialises in large-scale ornamental textiles, reviving endangered historical techniques and motifs. Most pieces take a year to embroider by hand. Through her usta-shogird (master-apprentice) approach, Jumayeva has trained numerous students, ensuring the transmission of artisanal knowledge across generations. Together with her family, she runs the Sovgʻa atelier and embroidery house-museum, dedicated to preserving and developing Uzbekistan’s embroidery heritage.

b. 1959, Bukhara, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Aziza Kadyri is a multidisciplinary artist working with textiles, sculpture, new technologies, experimental costume, and performance. Her practice fuses collaborative, interdisciplinary methods to create immersive physical and digital experiences. Kadyri explores themes of migration, identity, displacement, decolonisation, and loss of language, particularly in relation to women in Central Asia and its diaspora.

Through reimagining cultural heritage and familial histories via immersive technology and AI, she builds alternative and speculative realities and explores participatory modes of engagement. Kadyri is a co-founder of Qizlar, a Tashkent-based grassroots collective rooted in intersectionality and social change. 

b. 1994, Moscow, Russia; based in London, UK

Zi Kahramonova is a multidisciplinary artist and theatre designer. Shaped by a deep interest in mythology, feminist perspectives, and embodied experience, her practice spans performance, puppetry, digital animation, textiles, and scenography. Working experimentally across media and form, she explores the body as space and often examines taboos surrounding it. 

Kahramonova draws on Central and East Asian ornament, traditional techniques such as woodblock printing on textiles, and urban research to create visual narratives that merge folklore and contemporary life. 

b. 2001, Tashkent, Uzbekistan; based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Zokhir Kamolov is a sixth-generation blacksmith who continues the traditions of a prominent Bukharan artisan dynasty. Having learned the craft from an early age, he practised blacksmithing alongside his career as a civil engineer. In 1995, he opened his own workshop, fully dedicating himself to the craft. He has since gained international recognition for his creative and innovative interpretations of traditional objects, such as bird-shaped gold embroidery scissors.

b. 1962, Bukhara, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Said Kamolov is a fifth-generation blacksmith from the Kamolov artisan dynasty. He specialises in artistic metalwork and works on restoration projects, creating various metal elements such as gate handles for architectural monuments. His workshop produces a range of objects, from household items and farming tools to luxury pieces. He has trained sixteen apprentices, many of whom now work independently.

b. 1956, Bukhara, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Khristofor Kan was a Korean-Uzbek painter, graphic artist, and educator. He taught in various art institutions across the Soviet Union, including in Dushanbe, Almaty, Krasnoyarsk, and Fergana. From the 1980s, he lived and worked in Fergana, where he taught at the local college of arts. Kan was known for his expressive line work and unyielding artistic vision, often reflecting solitude and resilience. His works are preserved in the Nuron Art Gallery in Tashkent, which continues to promote his artistic legacy.

b. 1934, Sukhanovka, Russia; d. 2019, Fergana, Uzbekistan

Nazira Karimi is an artist and filmmaker whose practice explores collective memory, grief, and the environmental transformations of Central Asia. Working across film and installation, she engages with oral histories, archival materials, and site-specific landscapes to uncover erased narratives and reimagine historical memory. She is an active member of several women-led artist collectives dedicated to fostering art and knowledge production across Central Asia.

b. 1996, Dushanbe, Tajikistan; based in Almaty, Kazakhstan

Dilnoza Karimova is a ceramicist whose work bridges traditional craft practices and contemporary artistic approaches. Trained in fashion and textile design, she turned to ceramics in 2006, collaborating closely with her husband, renowned ceramicist Abdulvahid Bukhoriy. While assisting him in his mission to revive Bukhara blue ceramics, she developed her own artistic language through ongoing experimentation.

Her practice focuses on reinterpreting historical forms, particularly terracotta and glazed ceramic whistle toys (hushtak), inspired by archaeological samples from the 14th to 17th centuries found across Uzbekistan. Karimova’s work reflects a deep engagement with cultural heritage, blending research with creative craftsmanship.

b. 1984, Tashkent, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Madina Kasimbaeva is an embroidery artisan dedicated to reviving and reimagining the art of suzani. Drawing on cosmological symbols, Zoroastrian motifs, and regional patterns, her practice bridges heritage and contemporary design.

Since founding Suzani by Kasimbaeva in 2006, she has developed a distinctive style, transforming classic ornaments into unique textiles, garments, and accessories. Committed to sustaining this time-honoured craft, Kasimbaeva runs workshops across Uzbekistan, providing training and employment for young women.

b. in Tashkent, Uzbekistan; based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Oyjon Khayrullaeva is a digital artist whose work engages with Central Asian heritage, mythological narratives, and personal memory. Her practice centres on creating digital collages inspired by mosaics and other forms of applied art from Central Asia. She photographs mosaics in historic cities such as Bukhara and Samarkand and digitally reassembles them into new compositions.

Khayrullaeva often draws on Central Asian myths, legends, and folktales, as well as her dreams and emotional experiences. Recently, she has found inspiration in oral histories shared by her grandmother, who recounts stories of old Bukhara and its long-forgotten customs and traditions. These recorded narratives not only preserve ancestral memory but also serve as a creative foundation for her work.

b. 1996, Bukhara, Uzbekistan; based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Munisa Kholkhujaeva is a multidisciplinary visual artist working across a range of media, from graphic works on paper to installations and embroidery on traditional textiles. 

Her practice is inspired by the spiritual heritage of Central Asia, ecological awareness, and connections with the world beyond the human. She is particularly interested in exploring the subtle spiritual bonds between living beings. Drawing inspiration from the region where she was born, Kholkhujaeva’s work reflects an ongoing inquiry into questions of identity and belonging.

b. 1997, Tashkent, Uzbekistan; based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Islom Khudoyberdiev is a master craftsman specialising in the making and restoration of traditional Uzbek musical instruments. Trained on the rubab, a traditional string instrument made with mulberry wood, he began crafting instruments in the late 1990s, combining his deep knowledge of performance with artisanal skill. His practice focuses on preserving the craftsmanship of national stringed instruments, ensuring they meet both aesthetic and acoustic standards.

Khudoyberdiev has participated in numerous exhibitions and competitions, earning recognition for the quality and authenticity of his work. His handcrafted instruments are widely used in music schools and cultural centres across Uzbekistan. Alongside his production, he trains apprentices, passing on traditional techniques to future generations.

b. 1959, Gijduvon, Uzbekistan; based in Gijduvon, Uzbekistan

Daria Kim is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans performance, sculpture, video, sound, painting, and drawing. Her work is informed by lived experiences, rethinking of the Central Asian spirituality, and her Korean heritage. Her paternal family belongs to the Koryo-saram community—ethnic Koreans who were deported to Central Asia during the Soviet era.

Often working with plasticine and beeswax, Kim is interested in materiality and processes such as slime dynamics. She also examines the nature of anxiety and engages with the theme of temporality by reflecting on the effects of deceleration and the value of inefficient processes.

b. 1998, Tashkent, Uzbekistan; based in Berlin, Germany

Jenia Kim is a fashion designer and artist of Korean descent, born and raised in Uzbekistan. In her work, she explores the intricate cross-cultural identity of Koryo-saram—also known as Soviet Koreans.

She draws inspiration from her everyday surroundings—the city, people’s stories, moments, and events that often go unnoticed. Her fashion brand J.Kim is about balancing the refined silhouettes of Korean heritage with the cultural richness and vibrant colours of Uzbekistan—connecting both worlds and merging them into a new cultural experience.

Kim is committed to building new contexts rooted in multicultural heritage and meaningful craftsmanship, using art as a medium to preserve traditions and foster a sense of belonging. She regularly works with artisans and artists, and has recently opened a store showcasing her brand’s various craft-based collaborations.

b. 1991, Tashkent, Uzbekistan; based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Vladimir Kogai is a chef with 17 years of experience. Born in Uzbekistan, he grew up in modest circumstances and began cooking at an early age, often improvising with ingredients from his family’s garden. His professional path began in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he started with basic kitchen tasks and worked his way up through long, demanding hours. Inspired by experienced chefs and driven by discipline, he trained under both Russian and international mentors. Over time, he fulfilled his ambition of becoming a head chef.

 b. 1990, Tashkent region, Uzbekistan; based in Uzbekistan

Shakuntala Kulkarni’s work spans sculpture, performance, drawing, video and photography to explore themes of gender, power, and cultural identity. Her iconic series of cane armor sculptures investigate the intersections of tradition, protection, and the female body, addressing questions of agency and vulnerability in public and private spaces and drawing inspirations from civilizations all over the world.

Kulkarni’s practice is deeply informed by her engagement with craft and materiality, creating works that resonate with both historical significance and contemporary urgency. She comes from a theater background, which manifests itself in how she approaches collaboration differently than most visual artists, working with teams from different backgrounds and disciplines that come together in the way we see in a playbill or in movie credits.

b. 1950, Mumbai, India; based in Mumbai, India

Hassan Kurbanbaev is a photographer whose practice explores notions of homeland and identity. In response to the social and political changes unfolding in the country in recent years, Kurbanbaev has travelled across Uzbekistan, photographing urban and rural landscapes as well as portraits of its people. Engaging with the state slogan ‘Uzbekistan is a country with a great past and a great future’, he seeks to understand what lies in between.

b. 1982, Tashkent, Uzbekistan; based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan[1] 

Jeong Kwan is a chef and Buddhist monk whose culinary practice bridges spiritual philosophy and plant-based cooking. Working from her temple kitchen, she prepares vegan meals that reflect a deep connection to nature, time, and the meditative act of nourishment. Her approach emphasizes seasonal ingredients, fermentation, and traditional methods, creating food that supports both physical well-being and inner peace.

Guided by the principle that cooking is an expression of mindfulness, Jeong Kwan treats each ingredient with care and respect, allowing its natural qualities to shine. Her dishes, most free from garlic and onions to maintain spiritual focus, embody simplicity and balance. Through her thoughtful preparation, she invites others to experience food as a path to harmony and self-discovery.

b. 1957, Gyeongju, South Korea; based in Baegyangsa, South Korea

Konstantin Lazarev is a biologist and master florist whose life has been closely intertwined with plants since an early age. He founded his landscape bureau over 25 years ago and has since become known for his work across diverse climates—from arid deserts to Arctic tundra. His practice focuses on the introduction and adaptation of plant species for challenging environments. Drawing inspiration from his travels and botanical research around the world, he continues to develop site-specific solutions for resilient and imaginative gardens.

b. 1975, Kemerovo, Russia; based in Kemerovo, Russia

Anatoly Ligay was a Korean-Uzbek painter and graphic artist celebrated for his lyrical watercolours and refined visual language. Drawing upon both Eastern aesthetics and lived experience, Ligay’s meditative landscapes transformed familiar scenes into intimate reflections on nature, memory, and belonging. Influenced by his Korean heritage and local Uzbek surroundings, his work blended delicate brushwork with emotional depth, offering a quiet, sustained reverence for the visible world. His works are preserved in the Nuron Art Gallery in Tashkent, which continues to promote his artistic legacy.

b. 1941, Chimkent, Kazakh SSR; d. 2001, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Anna Lublina’s practice explores themes of identity, memory, and migration through performance, video, and installation. Drawing from personal experience and Jewish cultural history, Lublina reflects on the complexities of belonging and the layered nature of individual and collective memory. Her work often navigates inherited narratives, displacement, and the search for continuity across generations.

Combining storytelling with visual symbolism, Lublina engages the body as a site of transformation where personal history, rituals, and language converge. Through diverse materials and immersive environments, Lublina  invites audiences to reflect on the fluidity of identity and the lasting effect of cultural transmission and loss.

b. 1992, California, USA; based in Berlin, Germany

Jazgul Madazimova is an interdisciplinary artist working across performance, installation, and drawing to explore themes of migration, borders, and identity. Her practice is rooted in collaboration and social engagement, bringing together artists, spaces, and communities.

Women of Central Asia—particularly their experiences and perspectives—are central to Madazimova’s work. She often draws inspiration from the resilience and sacrifice of an entire generation of Kyrgyz women who migrated abroad to support their families.

b. 1990, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Pavel Makarov is a sculptor whose work spans contemporary sculpture and public art. He explores materiality and form through metalwork, wire structures, and sculptural interventions in both urban and natural settings. 

b. 1987, Chirchik, Uzbekistan; based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Taus Makhacheva creates works that explore the restless connections between historical narratives and fictions of cultural authenticity. Her multidisciplinary practice spans performance, video, installation, and sculpture. 

Often humorous, her art considers the resilience of images, objects and bodies emerging out of stories and personal experiences from the Caucasus that complicate the notion of empires. Her methodology involves reworking materials, landscapes and monuments, and proliferating institutional spaces with a cacophony of voices. Through revisiting the past, she interrogates tradition and memory, inviting audiences to reconsider established cultural constructs.

b. 1983, Moscow, Russia; based in Dubai, UAE

Han Mengyun is an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores cultural translation, memory, and visual language. Drawing from Chinese, Indian, and Islamic art histories, she creates paintings, installations, and moving images that reflect on the complexities of transcultural identity.

Her practice moves between what she describes as ‘day’ and ‘night’: the former rethinking Eurasian aesthetic traditions, and the latter rooted in personal narratives shaped by womanhood and motherhood. Through materials such as manuscripts, textiles, mirrors, and video, Han reimagines historical forms as a way of speaking to the present

b. 1989, Wuhan, China; based in London, UK

Hana Miletić researches care, labor, and social repair through weaving and other textile-based practices. Rooted in her observations of the living environment and its material transformations over time, Miletić creates handwoven works that refer to handmade, do-it-yourself repairs and mends made in everyday life, emphasizing the value of time and attention in a fast-paced globalised world.

Her practice reflects on the relationships between materiality, the passing of time, and relationality. Her approach expands from documentary photography into the act of weaving, emphasizing the relationships between the process of making and imagining, while highlighting often unseen aspects of society.

b. 1982, Zagreb, Croatia; based in Brussels, Belgium

Rasuljon Mirzaahmedov carries on a family legacy that spans nine generations of master ikat weavers. Trained by his renowned father, Turghunbay Mirzaahmedov, Rasuljon has dedicated his life to preserving the art of ikat, a vibrant textile technique that transforms threads into breathtaking patterns through the ancient process of tying and resist dyeing.

His journey has led him to create the exquisite ‘a’lo bakhmal’ velvet ikat—which even caught the eye of legendary designer Oscar de la Renta. As a passionate advocate for natural dyeing, Rasuljon authored the book "Secrets of Natural Dyeing" and established the Margilan Crafts Development Centre, where traditional crafts such as ikat weaving, carpet weaving, and embroidery thrive. 

b. 1973, Margilan, Uzbekistan; Margilan, Uzbekistan

Dana Molzhigit is a biodesigner and researcher whose work explores the intersections of ecology, material culture, and technology. Drawing from Kazakh heritage and nomadic traditions, she investigates how ancestral knowledge can inform sustainable design practices in the present. Her work often engages living systems such as fungi, algae, and microbial processes to develop biomaterials that reflect ecological balance and interdependence.

Molzhigit uses digital design and biofabrication to create materials and structures that work with, rather than against, natural systems. Her work brings together technology, tradition, and ecology to imagine more balanced and caring ways of building.

b. 1994, Almaty, Kazakhstan; based in Almaty, Kazakhstan

Delcy Morelos works with soil, clay, plant fibers, and spices to create installations that explore the relationship between land, body, and spirit. Rooted in her Colombian heritage and shaped by Indigenous ways of knowing, her practice reflects on cycles of life, memory, and transformation.

Her environments invite a slow, physical encounter with the earth, treating natural materials not as symbols, but as active presences. Morelos draws out the quiet power of these substances, creating spaces where human experience and the landscape are deeply intertwined. In her work, ancestral knowledge and contemporary life are held together, offering a way to think differently about the forces that sustain us.

b. 1967, Tierralta, Colombia; based in Bogotá, Colombia

Akmal Muhiddinov is an artisan from Bukhara, specialising in woodcarving and straw art. Continuing a family tradition of craftsmanship passed down through generations, he combines the distinctive features of the Bukhara school of woodcarving—famous for its elaborate ornamentation—to create bespoke architectural elements, furniture, and decorative objects. 

Muhiddinov pioneered the use of straw in fine art in Uzbekistan, crafting intricate images depicting iconic sites of Bukhara and rendering miniature paintings in the medium of straw. 

As head of a family-run crafts centre, he remains dedicated to preserving and evolving Bukhara’s artisanal heritage.

b. 1989, Bukhara, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Gulnur Mukazhanova works primarily with traditional Central Asian materials such as felt and brocade. She subverts their domestic functions by using them in complex installations and as elements in photo and video works. Her practice focuses on the performative quality of materials in transition, reflecting Kazakhstan’s shifting cultural landscape. Influenced by Central Asian textile traditions, Mukazhanova explores questions of identity and the transformation of values in the context of globalisation. Her works possess a strong physical presence and offer a critical perspective on global dynamics through the lens of her own culture.

b. 1984, Semey, Kazakhstan; based in Berlin, Germany

Yulduz Mukhdinova is an embroidery master and researcher specialising in suzani, the traditional Uzbek art of embroidery. Born into a family where generations of women—from her great-grandmothers to herself—have practised the craft, she has dedicated over 20 years to preserving and reinterpreting this cultural heritage.

Mukhdinova traces the journey of suzani from silk thread to wedding coverlet, uncovering the messages encoded in its patterns and exploring regional variations in design and colour from Nurata to Tashkent. Beyond her traditional practice, she frequently partners with contemporary artists and fashion brands, bringing her craft into new aesthetic and cultural contexts. 

b. 1972, Nurata, Uzbekistan; based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Rustam Muzaffarov is a seventh-generation ceramicist from the renowned Shakhrisabz pottery lineage, known for its distinctive “flame pottery” tradition. Characterised by vibrant red clay and yellow glazes, this style embodies energy, vitality, and a strong connection to ancestral craftsmanship. Tracing his lineage back to Egamberdi Kulol in the 1800s, Muzaffarov continues a family legacy that includes masters such as Muzaffar Kulol and Ahad Muzaffarov. Through his work and home museum, he is committed to preserving and transmitting Uzbekistan’s ceramic heritage to future generations and promoting national craft traditions on an international level.

b. 1989, Shakhrisabz, Uzbekistan; based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Abdullo Narzullaev is a sixth-generation ceramicist from Gijduvon’s renowned Narzullaev dynasty, preserving over 300 years of ceramic tradition. Trained by his father from childhood, he has dedicated his life to safeguarding and promoting Uzbekistan’s distinctive pottery and glazed tilework. 

He founded a crafts centre and a museum, where he regularly conducts masterclasses for visitors, showcasing the history and processes of traditional Uzbek pottery, embroidery, and carpet weaving. Narzullaev actively shares his knowledge worldwide, ensuring that Gijduvon’s heritage remains a living art for future generations.

b. 1963, Gijduvan, Uzbekistan; based in Gijduvan, Uzbekistan

Abdullo Narzullaev is a sixth-generation ceramicist from Gijduvon’s renowned Narzullaev dynasty, preserving over 300 years of ceramic tradition. Trained by his father from childhood, he has dedicated his life to safeguarding and promoting Uzbekistan’s distinctive pottery and glazed tilework. 

He founded a crafts centre and a museum, where he regularly conducts masterclasses for visitors, showcasing the history and processes of traditional Uzbek pottery, embroidery, and carpet weaving. Narzullaev actively shares his knowledge worldwide, ensuring that Gijduvon’s heritage remains a living art for future generations.

b. 1963, Gijduvan, Uzbekistan; based in Gijduvan, Uzbekistan

Azamat Nashvanov is a ceramic artistan working across tableware, decorative objects, and architectural ceramics, continuing the rich ceramic traditions of Bukhara. He began his practice in the early 1990s, first at the Gijduvon ceramics factory and later in his own studio. Since 2004, he has been based in a workshop in Bukhara’s Old City, where he continues to develop his craft through both functional forms and large-scale architectural commissions.

b. 1975, Gijduvon, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Sanjar Nazarov is a master embroiderer dedicated to preserving and promoting the traditions of Bukharan embroidery. Coming from a family of artisans in Bukhara, he has been surrounded by craftsmanship since childhood and has devoted his life to mastering one of Uzbekistan’s oldest and most respected art forms. 

Nazarov specialises in traditional techniques, ornamental patterns, and motifs characteristic of the Bukharan school of embroidery, with a focus on precision, quality, and cultural authenticity. Alongside his artistic practice, Nazarov is committed to inspiring younger generations to engage with Uzbekistan’s rich craft heritage.

b. 1987, Bukhara, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Anton Nozhenko is a ceramic artist whose practice bridges education, craft, and design. After relocating to Russia in 2000, he led the ceramic production at the famous Dymov factory in Suzdal, developing techniques and forms rooted in both tradition and experimentation. In 2025, he returned to Tashkent, where he now runs his own studio. 

b. 1969, Tashkent, Uzbekistan; based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Oysha Olimova is an emerging dancer and choreographer. She works across national, classical, and modern dance forms. Her goal is to revive Bukhara’s ancient dance heritage and adapt it for contemporary audiences while ensuring its transmission to future generations.
b. 2008, Bukhara, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Sara Ouhaddou’s practice moves between traditional craft and contemporary art, exploring how cultural symbols shift across time and place. Drawing from her French-Moroccan background, she works with artisan communities in Morocco, engaging with techniques like weaving, ceramics, embroidery, and stained glass to reflect on heritage, language, and the politics of preservation.

Her work reimagines endangered craft forms as living practices, blending abstract motifs and symbolic references into objects and installations. Through this process, Ouhaddou builds a visual language that bridges past and present, inviting reflection on how art can carry cultural memory forward.

b. 1986, Draguignan, France; based in Paris, France and Marrakech, Morocco

Marie Hélène Pereira is a curator and cultural practitioner whose work explores the intersections of art, identity, and migration. Her curatorial approach emphasizes collaboration and dialogue, creating platforms that amplify diverse voices and narratives.

Pereira's practice often engages with performative arts and culinary traditions, recognizing food as a vital medium for cultural expression and community building. Through her work, she fosters spaces that challenge conventional perspectives and encourage critical engagement with contemporary social issues.

b. 1986, Dakar, Senegal; based in Berlin, Germany

Marina Perez Simão creates paintings that intertwine abstraction and figuration, inviting viewers into rich, atmospheric worlds that feel like forefields of feelings. Her layered compositions often draw from memories, landscapes, and inner emotional terrains, resulting in works that oscillate between the personal and the universal. Simão’s use of vibrant color and dynamic form evokes a sense of movement and mystery, where fleeting impressions become enduring meditations on existence.

Her practice speaks to the transformative power of art as a bridge between reality and imagination, marked by its poetic resonance and evocative depth. She is inspired by scientific and spiritual quests to understand the universe, from astrology to astronomy, and the many ways that cultures across the history of humanity have tried to chart life on earth by striving to understand our place relative to the stars. 

b. 1980, Vitória, Brazil; based in São Paulo, Brazil

Ulugbek Qosimov is a master weaver and textile heritage specialist dedicated to the revival of Uzbekistan’s historical carpet-making traditions. Since beginning his career in 1992, he has led multiple initiatives focused on natural dye techniques and hand-woven silk carpets, often in collaboration with UNESCO. Qosimov has established several schools in Bukhara and Khiva, where he has restored early examples of Timurid and Varakhsha-era carpets.

He has trained over 300 artisans and created opportunities for women through vocational programmes. His work combines research, teaching, and craftsmanship, contributing to the continuity of Central Asian textile culture.

 b. 1975, Bukhara, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Rakhimov Studio, founded by Alisher Rakhimov and sustained by the artistic contributions of his family across nine? generations, is widely acclaimed for its ceramics, sculptures, and public artworks. Members of the studio include Alisher, Akbar, Akmal, and Shokhrukh Rakhimov, who together celebrate Uzbekistan’s rich cultural heritage while engaging with contemporary artistic practices. Rooted in centuries-old Uzbek craftsmanship, particularly intricate ceramic techniques, their work reinterprets tradition in innovative ways to address modern themes. Through their practice, Rakhimov Studio examines the relationship between heritage and innovation, creating works that connect past and present while exploring questions of cultural identity and continuity.

The studio continually identifies art as a medium for cultural dialogue, where local heritage serves as a foundation for global conversations. Their pieces have been exhibited internationally, showcasing Uzbekistan’s artistic legacy and its relevance to broader narratives of craftsmanship and design.

b. mid-20th century, Tashkent; based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Members of the studio include Alisher, Akbar, Akmal, and Shokhrukh Rakhimov, who together celebrate Uzbekistan’s rich cultural heritage while engaging with contemporary artistic practices. Rooted in centuries-old Uzbek craftsmanship, particularly intricate ceramic techniques, their work reinterprets tradition in innovative ways to address modern themes. Through their practice, Rakhimov Studio examines the relationship between heritage and innovation, creating works that connect past and present while exploring questions of cultural identity and continuity.

Shokhrukh Rakhimov is a seventh-generation ceramicist whose practice bridges centuries-old tradition and experimental contemporary craft. He descends from a renowned dynasty that has played a vital role in the research, preservation, and evolution of Uzbek ceramics throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. 

Trained by his grandfather Akbar Rakhimov and his father Alisher Rakhimov, Shokhrukh continues the family lineage while developing his own artistic language within the broader field of Central Asian applied arts. Through international residencies and workshops, he has engaged with the ceramic traditions of both Europe and the Arab world, enriching his own practice.

b. 2002, Tashkent, Uzbekistan; based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Alisher Rakhimov is a sixth-generation master ceramicist whose practice merges the rich traditions of Uzbek ceramics with innovative approaches. He inherited the craft from his renowned father and grandfather, both of whom dedicated their careers to researching and reviving lost techniques and styles of Central Asian ceramics.

While preserving and reimagining his family’s artistic legacy, Rakhimov has developed a distinctive style rooted in experimentation with form, texture, and mineral-based glazes. Through international exhibitions, UNESCO initiatives, and his studio in Tashkent, he continues to expand the possibilities of ceramic art, offering refined interpretations of Uzbekistan’s heritage for contemporary spaces.

b. 1975, Tashkent, Uzbekistan; based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Suchi Reddy is an architect and artist celebrated for her pioneering approach to blending design, technology, and human-centered principles. Through her multidisciplinary practice, Reddy explores the profound impact of design on well-being, using the philosophy of "form follows feeling" as a guiding ethos. Her works range from immersive installations to architectural projects, each reflecting a harmonious balance between innovation, aesthetics, and empathy.

Reddy’s practice engages deeply with material experimentation, ranging from ancient analog methods to contemporary technologies to create spaces and experiences that inspire connection and contemplation. Suchi Reddy integrates neuroaesthetics, the study of how the brain responds to aesthetic experiences, into her practice, also collaborating with scientists, philosophers, and medical practitioners to explore how art and design can positively impact healing and well-being.

b. 1972, Chennai, India; based in New York, USA

Elena Reygadas is a chef and restaurateur whose work engages with the cultural and ecological dimensions of food. Drawing from Mexico’s diverse culinary traditions, she explores how ingredients, techniques, and local knowledge shape the way we eat and relate to place. Through her restaurants, she creates environments where food becomes a form of storytelling rooted in land and seasonality.

Her approach reflects a broader commitment to sustainability and community, treating the kitchen as a space where heritage and innovation meet. Reygadas invites reflection on the everyday act of eating as a way to connect with history, environment, and one another.

b. 1976, Mexico City, Mexico; based in Mexico City

Zilola Ro‘ziyeva is a maqom performer and educator. Based at the Bukhara branch of the Uzbek National Maqom Art Center, she focuses on teaching and developing Bukhara’s maqom tradition for younger audiences. Her work is dedicated to preserving this rich musical heritage and ensuring its transmission to future generations.

b. 1991, Bukhara, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Veera Rustomji’s practice delves into themes of memory, identity, and cultural dialogue through the lens of her Parsi and Zoroastrian heritage, as well as broader South Asian and diasporic experiences. Combining photography, installation, and mixed media, Rustomji’s work reflects on the complexities of belonging, migration, and the evolving concept of home.

Her art explores the intersections of personal and collective histories, drawing on archival materials and contemporary narratives to create works that speak to both the weight of tradition and the possibilities of the future. Rustomji’s work fosters a deeper understanding of cultural continuity and transformation, inviting dialogue around the interwoven nature of heritage, migration, and identity.

b. 1992, Karachi, Pakistan; based in Karachi, Pakistan

Ruben Saakyan is an artist and florist who has been instrumental in shaping Uzbekistan’s floristry scene by promoting a distinctly artistic approach to floral design. Drawing on his background in painting, he prioritises craftsmanship and creativity over mass production, bringing an artisanal sensibility to each project. Throughout his practice, he explores new ways of interpreting the use and depiction of flowers in the social and visual culture of Uzbekistan. His interest in rethinking their role in everyday life led to a collaboration with Murano glassmakers, resulting in an installation that reimagined Bukhara embroidery through more than 500 handcrafted glass elements. 

Saakyan’s Goodveen Flower House studio is a space for nurturing talent and training skilled florists. Committed to sharing his expertise, he is motivated by a desire to elevate floristry as an art form within his country.

b. 1972, Tashkent, Uzbekistan; based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Zilola Saidova is a photographer whose work explores cultural identity, everyday life, and disappearing traditions across Uzbekistan and her native Bukhara in particular. Her practice is focused on ethnographic and documentary photography, with a particular interest in capturing the social realities of underrepresented groups and women.

Saidova has developed long-term collaborative projects documenting the lives of the marginalised Mugat community (an ethnic minority in Central Asia), and, more recently, the experiences of women in remote villages of Uzbekistan. Through her lens, she investigates themes of resilience, invisibility, and cultural continuity in contemporary society. 

b. 1972, Bukhara, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Anhar Salem is a video artist whose work explores digital culture, identity, and the politics of visibility. Using accessible tools like smartphone cameras, she creates works that reflect on the everyday and the personal, while examining how social media and global image circulation shape self-representation.

Drawing from Yemeni and Indonesian heritage, her practice weaves together improvisation, collaboration, and critique, highlighting the pressures and possibilities of making art within systems that often marginalize. Salem’s videos and installations offer a space to question how digital technologies mediate intimacy, belonging, and the way individuals and communities are seen.

b. 1993, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Mahfuza Salimova is a fifth-generation master of zarduzlik, the traditional art of gold embroidery. Raised in Bukhara’s historic Suzangaron mahalla, long associated with embroidery, she learned the craft from her mother and completed her first embroidered skullcap as a child. Her family, including both men and women, has practiced gold embroidery for generations. Today, her children and grandchildren continue the tradition. Through her work, Salimova plays a vital role in preserving the cultural heritage of Bukhara’s zarduzlik practices.

b. 1956, Bukhara, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Aisultan Seit is a filmmaker whose work expands the boundaries of contemporary Central Asian cinema. With a background in music videos and commercials, he has developed a distinctive cinematographic language that captures fleeting beauty and emotion with striking visual precision.

His films reflect a sustained engagement with cultural heritage and national identity. His debut feature, QASH—a one-man tragedy set during the mass famine of 1930s Kazakhstan—confronts historical trauma through evocative imagery, symbolic depth, and a capacity to render history as something felt rather than stated. Seit’s work has garnered increasing international attention and is widely seen as part of a new generation of Kazakh filmmakers redefining regional cinema on their own terms.

b. 1997, Astana, Kazakhstan; based in Almaty, Kazakhstan

Aziza Shadenova defines her multidisciplinary practice, which spans painting, photography, moving image, and installation, as a visual puzzle. Having grown up in Uzbekistan and now living in the UK, she often focuses on the untangling of her roots and reflects on her position as an immigrant, a woman, an artist, and a human being. 

Using humour and absurdism, Shadenova observes and critically engages with the past and the present, and examines how they impact the future. 

b. 1989, Khorezm, Uzbekistan; based in Hastings, UK

Kamruzzaman Shadhin’s work draws from the landscapes and cultural practices of Bangladesh to explore ecology, rural knowledge, and the shifting dynamics of community life. Using natural materials and collaborative processes, he reflects on how traditions adapt under the pressures of environmental and social change.

Through installations and participatory projects, Shadhin opens spaces for dialogue around sustainability, cultural memory, and transformation. His work moves between rural and urban contexts, emphasizing the deep connections between people, land, and shared histories.Shadhin’s social practice with the Gidree Bawlee Foundation for the Arts engages local artisans and children through puppet theatre, fostering intergenerational collaboration and sustaining traditional craft practices within rural communities.

b. 1974, Thakurgaon, Bangladesh; based in Thakurgaon and Dhaka, Bangladesh

Wael Shawky is celebrated for his films, installations, and performances that interrogate history, mythology, and the complexities of cultural identity. Shawky’s practice often reimagines historical narratives, blending fact and fiction to challenge dominant perspectives, often in a performative manner. Many of his works play with diverse histories of theater and storytelling to explore the entanglements of religion, politics, and power.

Through his distinctive visual language, Shawky invites audiences to reconsider the ways stories are told and remembered, creating spaces for critical reflection on the past and its relevance to the present.

b. 1971, Alexandria, Egypt; based in Alexandria, Egypt and  Philadelphia, USA

Jurabek Siddikov is a second-generation coppersmith, committed to preserving the Bukharan tradition of embossing—renowned for its elaborate and intricate designs. Having taken up the craft from his mother, he works primarily with copper, brass, and melchior, incorporating traditional ornaments, calligraphy, as well as floral and figurative patterns. 

Siddikov creates a variety of objects entirely by hand, including plates, jugs, bowls, and decorative panels. While continuing this ancient craft, he emphasises the importance of experimentation and the creation of new forms by blending styles and designs—just as artisans have done for centuries along the Silk Roads.

b. 1980, Bukhara, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Tavares Strachan’s practice traverses themes of exploration, history, and the interplay between science and culture. Known for his ambitious installations and conceptual projects, Strachan examines the limits of perception and the narratives that shape our understanding of the world. His works often highlight overlooked histories and individuals, reframing collective memory and challenging dominant cultural paradigms.

From harnessing extreme environments to engaging with cutting-edge technology, Strachan creates immersive experiences that bridge the physical and metaphysical, offering profound reflections on human ambition and resilience. Tavares Strachan's artistic practice is deeply rooted in scientific inquiry; he studied to be a cosmonaut in Moscow and has collaborated with NASA and other space agencies to have a more-than-Earth-based practice. 

b. 1979, Nassau, Bahamas; based in New York, USA

Saule Suleimenova’s practice engages with questions of identity, history, and the deconstruction of painting. She explores collective memory through research into archives, photographs, and the semiotics of contemporary cities, with a focus on the layered history of Kazakhstan. 

Since 2015, Suleimenova has been developing her Cellophane Painting series—figurative paintings made entirely from coloured and used plastic bags, spanning motifs that range from the socio-political to the deeply personal. By isolating specific moments from broader historical narratives, Suleimenova rewrites contemporary history—one shaped by an ecological and largely invisible catastrophe that has followed the industrialisation of the twentieth century.

b. 1970, Almaty, Kazakhstan; based in Almaty, Kazakhstan

Gulnora Sultonova is a traditional vocalist and member of the Bukhara Maqom Ensemble. Inspired by her mother, a music teacher, she views singing as her maternal heritage. With a degree in traditional singing, she regularly participates in concerts and creative tours. Her work focuses on safeguarding Bukhara’s musical culture for future generations.

b. 1987, Bukhara, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Rauf Takhirov is a fifth-generation master of traditional tilework who specialises in the restoration and production of architectural ceramics. Trained from an early age by his father, a renowned artisan, Takhirov has been instrumental in preserving the fine techniques of glazed brick and tile ornamentation in Uzbekistan and beyond. 

He has overseen major restoration projects at religious and cultural sites, contributing to the revitalisation of traditional craftsmanship across the region. In addition to his architectural work, he has mentored dozens of young artisans in his neighbourhood.

b. 1985, Samarkand, Uzbekistan; based in Samarkand, Uzbekistan

Alexander Tolkachev is a chef with over 15 years of experience. He began his career in Tashkent restaurants before working in Moscow, where he gained international experience in catering and team leadership. Passionate and dedicated, he views cooking as both a demanding craft and a lifelong commitment.

b. 1988, Tashkent, Uzbekistan; based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Davlat Toshev specialises in traditional Bukharan miniature painting, calligraphy, and book restoration. He began studying miniature painting in the early 1990s and has since developed a meticulous practice grounded in preserving and developing classical Bukharan styles. Drawing on Bukhara’s long-standing link between craft and Sufi spirituality, and tracing the connections between Bukharan miniature painting and related traditions across the Persian-speaking world and India, Toshev’s work is imbued with layered meaning, often inspired by poetry, allegory, and mystical parables.

He uses traditional materials such as natural pigments derived from minerals and plants, and produces his own handmade mulberry and silk paper. In 2019, he founded a master–apprentice art school in Bukhara, where he teaches miniature painting—offering free instruction, including to children with special needs.

b. 1975, Bukhara, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan.

Joseph Tumari is an electronic musician and producer who creates a sound he describes as a ‘symbiosis of introverted nostalgia with elements of ambient, electro, and techno’.

His music is often characterised by broken rhythms, dark melodies, and intricate rhythmic lines, forming a rich and immersive audiovisual landscape. The use of vintage synthesizers and lo-fi textures lends his compositions warmth and authenticity, evoking a sense of nostalgia and intimacy. By blending classic techniques with experimental sound design, Tumari offers a distinctive take on contemporary electronic music.

 b. 1998, Tashkent, Uzbekistan; based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Abbos Tuyev is a traditional maqom singer and educator. Interested in music since childhood, he began performing at school events and later specialised in maqom. Today, he is engaged in passing on Bukhara’s oral musical heritage to the next generation.
 

 b. 2000, Shofirkon, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Alisher Ubaydullaev is a woodcarver whose practice centres on traditional Uzbek carving techniques, with a focus on architectural ornament and decorative design. Working primarily with doors and interior elements, he creates intricately carved compositions that merge structural function with refined craftsmanship. His work can be found in major public buildings, including the carved doors of the Yeni Mamak Central Mosque in Ankara and decorative woodwork for major government buildings in Tashkent, including the Senate, Kuksaroy, and Dormon Residence.

b. 1986, Tashkent, Uzbekistan; based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Abdurakhim Umarov is a celebrated artisan and restorer whose work has played a pivotal role in the preservation and development of ganchcarving—a traditional Central Asian technique that involves carving gypsum plaster to create intricate reliefs on walls, ceilings, and architectural elements.

He began studying the craft at the age of twelve under the renowned master Usto Mahmud Usmanov. Since the 1970s, Umarov has contributed to major projects, including the Tashkent Metro stations Yoshlik, Paxtakor, and Chilonzor, as well as the restoration of sacred sites such as the Imam al-Bukhari complex in Samarkand, the Bahouddin Naqshband complex in Bukhara, and Shah-i-Zinda in Samarkand. For decades, he led an artisan association and trained numerous apprentices, spearheading the continued evolution of Uzbekistan’s monumental-decorative traditions.

 b. 1947, Tashkent, Uzbekistan; based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Erika Verzutti explores themes of nature, identity, and materiality through sculpture and installation. Drawing from everyday objects and organic forms, her work reflects on the delicate balance between fragility and strength, inviting viewers to reconsider their relationships with the world around them.

Verzutti’s practice focuses on the transformation of materials, using techniques that highlight the passage of time and the beauty found in the mundane. Through her tactile sculptures and installations, she creates spaces that encourage reflection on both the physical and emotional connections we have with the environments we inhabit.

b. 1971, São Paulo, Brazil; based in São Paulo, Brazil

Gulnora Yaxshiboyeva is a singer and performer of the classical Bukharan genre of shashmaqom music. Having studied acting, she has long worked with ensembles in Bukhara and currently serves as a top-level artist at the Bukhara branch of the Uzbek National Maqom Art Center. She is dedicated to preserving and transmitting Bukhara’s maqom traditions to the younger generation.

b. 1965, Paxtachi, Uzbekistan; based in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Nomin Zezegmaa’s practice spans installation, painting, writing, video and performance to explore themes of ancestral knowledge and ecological transformations. Her works often interrogate the tension between traditions and contemporary realities, creating poignant reflections on cultural preservation and change.

Zezegmaa’s art invites audiences into immersive narratives that bridge mythological and personal histories, highlighting the interconnectedness of human and natural worlds. She also trains in Mongolian horseback archery which informs her artmaking practice, exploring themes of human-animal connection and its relationship to cultural heritage and identity.

b. 1992, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; based in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia