Aziza Kadyri is a London-based Uzbek multidisciplinary artist working across textiles, sculpture, installation, creative technologies, and performance practices.
Kadyri’s practice examines themes of migration, displacement, decolonisation, industry, and identity formation, particularly for women in Central Asia and its diaspora. Her experience of growing up between Taipei, Tashkent, Moscow and Beijing informs much of her work.
Using textiles and costume, she reimagines cultural heritage and diasporic narratives through technological tools such as AI, machine learning, extended reality and interactive tech, weaving together speculative stories that preserve memory, resist erasure, and engage in alternative mythmaking.
Central to her work is a participatory approach that engages local communities and artisans, and situates her within wider conversations on decolonial aesthetics and feminist technology.
She is the co-founder of Qizlar, a grassroots collective of artists and activists from Uzbekistan and its diaspora, rooted in intersectionality and social change.
Aziza represented Uzbekistan at the 60th Venice Biennale of Art in 2024 with the project Don’t Miss the Cue. She is a medalist of Art Basel Awards 2026, finalist of CIRCA Prize 2025 and a Gold medalist at the 18th International Triennial of Textile. Selected exhibitions include, Bukhara Biennial, Uzbekistan; 5th Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art, Zhejiang Art Museum, China; and solo shows at Somerset House, UK; eastcontemporary, Italy; and Pushkin House, UK.
gallery enquiries: agnieszka @ east-contemporary.org
artist and portfolio enquiries: aziza @ azizakadyri.com
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS & PROJECTS
2026
(upcoming) Museum commission, V&A South Kensington, London, UK
(upcoming) Museum commission, Tselinny Center for Contemporary Art, Almaty, KZ
Movements (in collaboration with the St. Moritz Art Film Festival, curated by Stefano Rabolli Pansera), miart 2026, Milan, IT
Threading Inwards, CHAT (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile), Hong Kong
Gendered Lives in the Aftermath of Toxicity, Sonic Arts Biennial, Amsterdam, NL
2025
Play Nice (solo), Somerset House, London, UK
Stories We Carry, Associazione Barriera, Turin, IT
Making Kin, Asian Art Museum, Humboldt Forum, Berlin, DE
Recipes for Broken Hearts, Bukhara Biennial, Bukhara, UZ
Re-Constellations, 5th Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art, Zhejiang Art Museum, Hangzhou, CN
Spectral Drift, Audra Festival, National M. K. Čiurlionis Art Museum, Kaunas, LT
Subject to Change, Gazelli Art House, London, UK
Bild und Macht. Zeppelinfotografie im Fokus (commission), Zeppelin Museum, Friedrichshafen, DE
Genius Loci: Notes on Places by Kunstverein Ludwigshafen, consisting of:
Beauty and Ugliness, Industriehof Speyer, Speyer, DE
The Flow: Central Asian Video Art Programme, Ainalaiyn Space at Three Highgate gallery, London, UK
Big Screen Film Programme, Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea, UK
2024
Don’t Miss the Cue, Uzbekistan National Pavilion, 60th Venice Biennale, Venice, IT
Soft Data (solo), eastcontemporary, Milan, IT
Swaying the Current, Zilberman, Berlin, DE
You are here. Central Asia, Fondazione Elpis, Milan, IT (As part of Qizlar)
Spinning Tales (solo), Pushkin House, London, UK
ECHO, The Lab at Oaklands Rise, London, UK
2023
Her Stage (I), Stihia Festival, Navoi Region, UZ
9 Moons, Өmə, nGbK & Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin, DE
9 Moons: imagined archives, TAEX platform, London, UK
Ciné Moon Mobile, D’EST/District * School without Center, Berlin, DE
2022
Museum of Moscow’s Subconscious, Athens Digital Arts Festival, Athens, GR
2021
Android walks into a bar, Centre of Theater Mastership, Nizhny Novgorod, RU
De-canon, New Skin: The Myth of a Technological Body, Sevkabel port, Saint Petersburg, RU
Body-Gap-Garment-Gap-Room, DECODING THE HABITUAL Symposium, 6th Tallinn Photomonth Biennial, Tallinn, EE
Over there, Praktika Theatre, Moscow, RU
OUTSIDE, Ermolova Theatre, Moscow, RU
Beyond the wind, Petr Fomenko Workshop theatre, Moscow, RU
Homeward, Evripideio Theatro Rematias, Athens, GR
RESIDENCIES & AWARDS
2026
Medalist at Art Basel Awards 2026, CH
Watermill Center, US
2024-2025
Gold Medal at the 18th International Triennial of Textile, PL
CIRCA Art Shortlist, UK
Gazell.IO Digital Residency, UK
Bow Arts Soho Connections Residency, UK
Creative Technologies Fellowship Recipient and Resident at Somerset House Studios in partnership with UAL Creative Computing Institute (CCI), UK
Delfina Foundation UK Associate, UK
2022
Auggie Award for Best Campaign, AWE USA
1st Place, Workshops Category, Athens Digital Arts Festival
2021
Winner, NOVA ART 8 Contest, Anna Nova Gallery
Feminist Translocalities Residency, RU
2020
IZOLYATSIA. Platform for Cultural Initiatives, Landscape as a Monument Residency, UA
Artigit'l Residency, UK
Inteatro - Villa Nappi Polverigi, IT
2019
Stiftung Reinbeckhallen, DE
TALKS & WORKSHOPS
2026
Evening with Aziza Kadyri, UCL: SSEES, UK
Memory in Practice, King's College, UK
Ornamental interventions – storytelling through patterns and creative tech, National Museum, NO
Upgrade Yourself Monthly: Mapping Memory Through Space, Somerset House, UK
2025
Visual Arts Practice Through the Lens of Costume, UAL: London College of Fashion, UK
On Collaboration, Bukhara Biennial, UZ
Getting Under My Skin: Stelarc, Mónica Rikić, Aziza Kadyri, CIFRA, UAE
Proposals, Prompts and Speculations Symposium, UAL: Chelsea College of Arts, UK
Formations: In Conversation with Aziza Kadyri and Francesca Stocco, Bonington Gallery, UK
Grounding Practice: Louis Morlæ & Aziza Kadyri, Somerset House, UK
Stitching Luck: Talisman Crafting, Croydon Council, UK
Systems Overhaul: Disrupting the System, Architectural Association, UK
Gallery and Exhibition Design, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK
Break Down and Stitch Up, Toneelacademie Maastricht, NL
Soft Techne: Crafting Futures. A conversation with Dr Vivek Gupta, Delfina Foundation, UK
Don’t Miss the Spin: Tales of Transcultural Geography, Women’s Agency and Intermedia Patterns. A conversation with Alyce Mahon, Pushkin House, UK
2024
Digital Activism in Grassroots Action, UAL: London College of Communication, UK
Suzani Reimagined, Victoria & Albert Museum, UK
Ha’m-neshini hosted by Morehshin Allahyari, Victoria & Albert Museum, UK
Break Down and Stitch Up, Critical Infrastructures and Image Politics (CIIP), UK
Monuments, Digital Activism, AR and Photogrammetry, Winchester School of Art, UK
Storyboarding for Costume Design, UAL: London College of Fashion, UK
Detours on Memory Lane Workshop, Pushkin House, UK
Confronting Mediocracy: Creative Agencies Pushing the Boundaries, 4th World Conference on Creative Economy, UZ
Re-practice Laboratory, Tselinny Center, KZ
Reimagining suzani with AI and AR, La Biennale, IT
2023
Digital Activism in XR, FemAgora Central Asia, KZ
Performative spaces of extended reality, Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space, Prague, CZ
2022
AR in Activism, 139 Documentary Center, UZ
Digital and AR fashion, 139 Documentary Center, UZ
2021
AR as a Medium for Social Commentary, Athens Digital Arts Festival, GR
AR for Cyberfeminism, FemAgora Central Asia, KZ
Augmenting the shopping centre. Experiencing the Museum, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, RU
PUBLICATIONS
2024
Don’t Miss The Cue, Exhibition catalogue
RARE Visions of Performance Design and Scenography, Theatralia: Journal of Theatre Studies, vol. 27, no. 1 (Guest editor)
COLLECTIONS
Friedrichshafen City / Zeppelin Museum
Private Collections
EDUCATION
2018-2020 MA Performance Design & Practice, Central Saint Martins, London, UK
2013-2017 BA Fashion Design, Tsinghua University, Beijing, CN