Aigana Gali

In 2021 several pieces were shown at the group exhibition Light Works, "A meditation on light, the theatre of colour and the sacred geometries found in wild places." and also at the Blue Minds group show, which raised money for the charity Bluemarine Foundation and highlighted the similarities between artists and scientists in their intense observation and ability to highlight important themes. One of the pieces from Light Works, Meditator II, was chosen for the Royal Academy of Art's Summer Exhibition.

Between 2007-2009 Gali starred in several Kazakh films, including the award-winning Strayed, which was also nominated at the Montreal World Film Festival in 2009. She also worked as a costumier and guest Art Director at the Rambert in 2010 and the Marjanishvili Theatre Tbilisi in 2014, staging Aristophanes' The Birds After moving to London in 2007, she gained a Master's Degree at Sotheby's Institute of Art

Born to a Georgian mother and Kazakhstani father, Aigana Gali was raised in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where her formative years were spent in the wild, open cradle of the Eurasian Steppe. As well as training as an artist from the age of seven, Gali also joined the Profi-Studio ballet school, graduating in 1996. The same year she won a competition to model in Paris; despite a successful career in haute couture and magazine appearances including Vogue, she was unhappy. After nearly four years she returned to Kazakhstan to continue to paint and study, gaining a Bachelor's degree from Almaty State University and a post-grad from the Kazakh Academy of Science (KazGASA).

Of her process (and name change) Gali states, "When I did my masters degree, I wrote my thesis on The influence of Russian Academic school of Painting to Kazakh school. I was interested in how we had evolved from a shamanic tribe who only painted symbols for decorative art, mostly in textiles. I learnt about Aiganym [1783-1853] – the wife of the tribal leader Wali Khan – who invited painters from Russia to teach her children and grandchildren. In a way she was the root of Kazakh fine art. I was given her name, and I am a direct beneficiary of this – the importation of a very strict Soviet academic school... but at the same time the root of my practice lies underneath this in the Scythian tradition – in shamanic ritual.