Aissulu Kadyrzhanova | Symbiotic Drift
Aissulu Kadyrzhanova (b. 1978, Almaty, Kazakhstan) is a painter based in Philadelphia. Her practice is rooted in the vast expanses of the Kazakh steppe and shaped by long train journeys between Almaty and Moscow, where she studied painting. These landscapes – nearly devoid of human or animal presence yet charged with metaphysical force – continue to inform her art. In her paintings, nature appears as a living consciousness: trees, water, celestial objects return as recurring motifs. Drawing on Central Asian cosmologies, Kadyrzhanova sees no clear boundary between human and nonhuman life but instead a shared living fabric. Through the act of painting, she connects to this web of relationships and to what Donna Haraway calls “critters,” the many beings visible and invisible that make up our world.
She trained at the Surikov Moscow State Fine Arts Institute and holds an MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University. Her work has been presented in solo exhibitions at PII Gallery (Philadelphia, 2021, 2025), Zephirin Giannetta Gallery (Ardmore, 2024), and NoBa Art Space (Bala Cynwyd, 2018), as well as in international group shows in Kazakhstan and Russia. She was a resident artist at the Asian Arts Initiative Pearl Street Residency in Philadelphia (2016–2017).
instagram: @aissulu_kadyrzhan
The Sea Wave
2025, Rubber, metal needles, acrylic on wood, 11×18×3 in (28×46×7,6 cm)
Courtesy of the artist
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