b. 1943, Nizhneudinsk, Irkutsk region

(1943, Nizhneudinsk – lives and works in Almaty) A key figure in Kazakhstan’s contemporary art scene, Georgii Tryakin–Bukharov has lived in Almaty since the 1960s becoming part of the city’s alternative art community. Though he briefly audited courses at art institutes in Moscow and Almaty, his self-taught, experimental practice draws on Dada, Arte Povera, and post-Soviet life. The artist creates assemblages from discarded materials – from tiny toys to large scale furniture – that many would consider trash. As a personal strategy of upcycling, he creates a material archive where the ‘discarded’ finds a voice. His works embrace the aesthetics of decay and instability, chronicling the survival amid the post-Soviet turbulence, where rubbish becomes both a metaphor for memory and a material for the formation of a new identity. In Qonaqtar, his sculpture Equilibrium incorporates parts of musical instruments – a dombra, violin, and drums reassembled into a human figure. This balancing act of broken instruments playfully evokes the region’s musical heritage while underscoring the artist’s ongoing exploration of transformation through found objects.