On 17 June, TOVA Foundation hosted a studio visit with Kazakhstani artist Lyazzat Khanim at her studio in Basel. Bringing together curators, collectors, artists, and researchers, the event offered an opportunity to encounter Khanim's practice in the context of her current studies at the Academy of Art and Design FHNW, where she is completing her MA in Fine Arts.

The visit was followed by a lecture by TOVA Foundation's Head Curator, Vladislav Sludskiy, exploring the development of realism in contemporary art in Kazakhstan and tracing the ways artists have reimagined everyday life, historical memory, and material culture through realist approaches.

Lyazzat Khanim works across painting, video, and digital media, creating meticulously rendered images that transform familiar objects into quietly unsettling encounters. Her photorealist paintings isolate fragments of everyday life, revealing the poetic and psychological dimensions embedded within ordinary things. Balancing precision with subtle surrealist shifts, her practice examines perception, commodity culture, and the ways personal experience becomes entangled with broader social realities.

Currently based in Basel, Khanim is enrolled in the MA in Fine Arts programme at the Academy of Art and Design FHNW. She is the recipient of the Départemental du Puy-de-Dôme Prize in Clermont-Ferrand (since 2025), and her work is held in the collections of TOVA Foundation and the Eurasian Cultural Alliance.







The studio visit formed part of TOVA Foundation's growing programme of international gatherings, creating opportunities for direct encounters between artists from Kazakhstan and the wider international art community. Rather than presenting artworks solely within exhibition spaces, these visits offer a more intimate setting for conversation, allowing participants to engage with artistic processes, ongoing research, and the contexts in which new work is produced.We are grateful to everyone who joined us in Basel and contributed to the conversations throughout the afternoon. We look forward to continuing these exchanges through future studio visits, exhibitions, and public programmes that connect Kazakhstan's contemporary art scene with international audiences.












On 7 May, during the Venice Biennale, TOVA Foundation presents Trading Treasures, an inaugural gathering that marks the public launch of the foundation. Bringing together artists, curators, collectors, museum professionals, and friends of the foundation at Tre Oci in Venice, the evening introduces TOVA's long-term commitment to supporting artistic practices from Kazakhstan and the wider Central Asian region.

Founded by Togzhan Wertheimer, TOVA is a Geneva-based non-profit organisation working across education, production, research, and institutional partnerships. Rather than positioning Kazakhstan as a newly discovered geography, the foundation seeks to create lasting relationships that connect artists and cultural practitioners with international institutions while supporting the development of local cultural infrastructure.


"I'm from Kazakhstan, and as international attention increasingly turns toward Central Asia, I've felt a growing responsibility—not simply to participate in that conversation, but to help shape it," says Togzhan Wertheimer, Founder of TOVA Foundation. "The region's artists, histories, and cultural complexity deserve more than momentary attention. They deserve sustained dialogue, long-term partnerships, and institutional care."
The launch comes at a moment of significant transformation for Kazakhstan's cultural landscape. Recent years have seen the opening of major institutions including the Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture and the Almaty Museum of Arts, alongside the continued growth of independent initiatives, private collections, and artist-run spaces. Within this evolving ecosystem, TOVA positions itself as a platform that connects local initiatives with international networks while investing in long-term collaborations.

Among the foundation's first initiatives is a three-year partnership with Gasworks in London, supporting residency opportunities for artists from Kazakhstan. TOVA is also developing collaborations with European museums and institutions while expanding its public programme through exhibitions, publications, research projects, and educational initiatives.

"We're interested in building the conditions that allow artists and curators from Kazakhstan to become part of international conversations over the long term. Infrastructure isn't only physical—it's also relationships, trust, and continuity." says Vladislav Sludskiy, Head Curator of TOVA Foundation
At the centre of Trading Treasures are works by Saule Suleimenova (b. 1970, Almaty) and Sayan Baigaliyev (b. 1996, Betkuduk), two artists whose practices explore memory, domestic space, and the material traces of historical and social change from distinct generational perspectives

For the occasion, Saule Suleimenova premieres Barsakelmes — Shaky Equilibrium. The artwork continues her ongoing investigation into landscape, memory, and family history through the story of Barsakelmes, once an island in the Aral Sea that became desert as the water disappeared. Presented in Venice—a city increasingly threatened by rising sea levels—the work draws an unexpected connection between two landscapes shaped by opposite ecological conditions. Through archival imagery printed on fused plastic bags, Suleimenova reflects on disappearance, inherited trauma, and the fragile persistence of memory.
Alongside Suleimenova's work, Sayan Baigaliyev presents paintings and sculptural works that transform everyday domestic interiors into unstable psychological spaces. His compositions compress architecture, furniture, and personal objects into layered perspectives, turning familiar environments into reflections on intimacy, vulnerability, and the shifting idea of home.

The evening concludes with a DJ set by Baurzhan Bismildin, whose selection moves between Kazakh musical traditions, regional folk motifs, techno, and contemporary electronic music, tracing unexpected connections across generations and geographies.






























TOVA Foundation was a host for the recent field trip to Almaty that gave us a chance to experience the city’s cultural energy first-hand. Between the mountains and modern skyline, Almaty is quickly establishing itself as a regional hub for contemporary art and culture.

Highlights included the opening of the new Almaty Museum of Arts, the special evening at Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture, and the Barsakelmes performance produced and delivered by Balkash Snitsya, dudeontheguitar, lovozero, SAMRATTAMA, Steppe Sons, Saadet Türköz, Zere and the Tselinny Team. 

Aside from the official inaugurations TOVA’s guests also visited studios of Sayan and Zhenya Baigaliyevs, Nurbol Nurakhmet, Saule Dyussenbina, Saule Suleimenova and Kuanysh Bazargaliyev, Alibay Bapanov, and attended solo and group exhibitions across the city including Yelena & Viktor Vorobyev’s Window at Egin Art Space, estate of Moldakul Narymbetov as well as Where Wings Grow at Aspan Gallery featuring artworks of Askhat Akhmedyarov, Bakhyt Bubikanova, Ulan Djaparov, Saodat Ismalova, Rustam Khalfin, Moldakul Narymbetov and Saule Suleimenova, It was a rather busy month for Almaty and the participants of the program that made it difficult to pay a visit to all the artists and scholars that we intended to. However, such trips will become a significant part of TOVA’s DNA and we will be coming more frequently visiting more artists and lectures in the near future.