Almaty Museum of Arts

Almaty Museum of Arts opened in September 2025 and instantly became one of the best reasons to visit Almaty. The light-filled building by Chapman Taylor stands at the corner of Nazarbayev and Al-Farabi avenues against a backdrop of mountains, and its collection of more than 700 works runs from 20th-century Kazakh painters to global stars. The museum is especially proud of landmark works by world-class artists such as Richard Serra, Anselm Kiefer, Yayoi Kusama and Bill Viola, as well as monumental pieces created specially for the museum by Yinka Shonibare, Jaume Plensa and Alicja Kwade. The art starts on the square outside, with Plensa’s 12-metre white head “Nades” and Shonibare’s vivid “Wind Sculpture”. Inside are Serra’s steel labyrinth, Kiefer’s room of charred books, Viola’s video works and Kusama’s mirror room “Love Calls”, where glowing polka-dot tentacles reflect into infinity.