Gayane Umerova

Gayane Umerov is the Chairperson of the Art and Culture Development Foundation under the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Uzbekistan

Prior taking the role at the Foundation Gayane was a senior curator at the Art Gallery of Uzbekistan since 2008.

In 2011 Gayane served as a curator at the 6th Tashkent International Biennial of Contemporary Art, having coordinated educational programme for the 5th Tashkent Biennial in 2009. Previously curated solo exhibitions of Gunter Uekker (2009) and Gerhard Richter, Art Gallery of Uzbekistan (2008). In October 2012 Gayane was appointed as a curator of the major retrospective show of legendary Armenian-born Uzbek artist Oganes Tatevosyan. In October 2013 Gayane was awarded with the prize of Artists’ Union of CIS countries art confederation for “Observations of the Unseen World” project discovering Islamic ornamental system in arts of Central Asia. In 2015 curated exhibition Henry Moore: The Printmaker at the State Art Museum of Uzbekistan, Tashkent.

Gayane holds a MA in Art Business from Sotheby’s Institute of Art & BA in Business administration from the University of Westminster, London having also completed a fine art course at the University of Manchester. Phd candidate in Anthropology (The University of Oxford).

Gayane played an instrumental role in promoting Central Asian artists on the art market in this increasingly important field. Gayane’s in-depth knowledge of this market and her influence in the region have been invaluable developing this important collecting field tracing the international. As a result first Uzbek contemporary art auction hosted in partnership with Christie’s in May 2012 at the Savitskiy’s Museum in Nukus, Uzbekistan. In 2013 and 2014 served as an advisor for a series of selling exhibition At the Crossroads: Contemporary Art form Caucasus and Central Asia at Sotheby’s London.