Almas Oraqbay (b.1985) is a graduate of the Kazakh National Academy of Art. In 2010 he was awarded a Kazakhstan government scholarship to study an MFA at the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. Alongside the development of his artistic career, Oraqbay also teaches painting and drawing at the National University of Art in Astana, Kazakhstan. 

Highlighting the issues of global concern, such as urbanisation and environmental pollution, Oraqbay skilfully interprets how modernity affects human values and culture. His work seeks to enable the spectator to channel the primordial wisdom of ancestors, which has been transmitted over generations, but now this connection is vanishing like a mirage in the complexity of contemporaneity. Through this non-verbal communication Oraqbay’s imaginative figurative paintings are an attempt for enlightenment and for the recreation of an unspoiled world.