Zhandos Zharilkassyn

2004–Present · Kazakhstan

Kazakh painter whose practice explores identity and inner experience through intuitive painting, reflection, and personal discovery.

Reflecting on the cycle, Zhandos describes his interest in what takes place within a person during a period of existential crisis — when familiar meanings collapse, one’s established sense of self begins to dissolve, and the foundations on which one has relied can no longer be taken for granted.

“This exhibition is not about particular images. It is an attempt to make visible what usually remains unseen: the transformation of an internal state, the gradual disintegration of established forms, and the emergence of something new in their place.

At the beginning of the cycle, the works are almost monochromatic and deliberately unstable. Forms appear to drift, while the line loses its sense of direction. For me, this represents a state of dissolution — a moment when everything that once seemed important suddenly loses its meaning.

Yet crisis, for me, is not solely a process of destruction. Gradually, the forms begin to come together again. The line becomes more assured, colour emerges, and with it comes the possibility of a new sense of meaning. This meaning does not return in the form it once had. It has to be created anew, from the ground up.

Here, I see a direct connection with Sartre: meaning is not given to us in advance; we determine what it will be ourselves. In this sense, crisis is not only a loss, but also an opportunity to reconstruct oneself.

The cycle has no definitive ending. Such states inevitably return, although each time they are experienced differently. Something always remains after a period of destruction — traces, fragments, remnants of what came before. It is precisely from these remnants that something new can eventually take shape.”