The Institute of Fine Arts
Central Asia Initiative

Guzel Zakir

Guzel Zakir is a Kazakhstani artist of Uyghur descent, living and working in Almaty. Her practice explores identity, collective memory, and women’s voices through textiles, painting, and interdisciplinary projects. She studied arts and graphics at Abai Kazakh Pedagogical University (2004–2007), earned a Master’s degree in Experimental Arts (2008, Abai KazNPU), and later continued her studies at the Xinjiang Institute of Arts (2016–2020). Her solo exhibitions include Let Her Dance (Gaotai Gallery, Urumqi, 2022) and Monobrow (Matti Silvio Gallery, Muscat, 2022). Zakir’s work has been presented in international group exhibitions such as News from Central Asia (New York Jewelry Week, New York, 2022; Washington DC, 2022), Clouds, Power and Ornament – Roving Central Asia, curated by Slavs and Tatars (Hong Kong, 2023), Asia NOW – Paris Art Fair (2023) and ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair (2024). She is the director of the short film ILI ILI (2023), dedicated to the migration of Uyghurs to Central Asia and the intimate relationship between memory and displacement. In the fall of 2025, she curated Qizil Tan: From Histories of Uyghur Writing to Visual Languages of the Future, an exhibition on the history of Uyghur print in Kazakhstan.