Menlibayeva studied at the Academy of Art and Theatre in Almaty. Her work addresses such critical issues of post- Soviet modernity as social, economic, and political transformations in Central Asia, de-colonial re-imaginings of gender, environmental degradation, and Eurasian nomadic and indigenous cosmologies and mythologies.
Her work has been featured internationally at the Sydney Biennale, the Venice Biennale, the Moscow Biennale and the Gangwon International Biennale in South Korea. Her video installations and photography have been exhibited at Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, M HKA, Antwerp; Queens Museum, New York; Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Ithaca, New York; Stenersen Museum, Oslo; and the ZKM Museum of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe.
In conjunction with her solo exhibition Transformation at the Grand Palais in Paris (France, 2016 – 2017), she was awarded the prestigious Chevalier Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture in 2017.
Current exhibitions (a selection only)
May, 2025 – May, 2026
Retrospective/Solo Show: I Understand Everything
Almaty Museum of Arts (AMA),
Almaty, Kazakhstan
March 15 – July 13, 2025
Lining Revealed – A Journey Through Folk Wisdom and Contemporary Vision
Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile,
Hong Kong
April 01 – July 06, 2025
Oasis in a Troubled World
JTAC x Bangkok Art and Culture Center,
Bangkok, Thailand
May 01 – Sept. 02, 2024
Almagul Menlibayeva: My Silk Road To You and Nomadized Suprematism
Aga Khan Park, Aga Khan Museum,
Toronto, Canada