Memory Objects (2013)

Memory Objects is a series of photographs of the underside of photographic documents from the archives of Soviet labor camps. KarLag — the Karaganda Corrective Labor Camp (1930-1959) was one of the largest Gulag labor camps. ALZHIR — the Akmolinsk Camp of Wives of Traitors to the Motherland (1938 — 1953) was a Gulag instituted by the Soviet Union to jail the members of the families of traitors to the Motherland.

By photographing the reverse side of photographs, the artist engages with these archival photographs not for the images they hold, but as tangible objects which contain traces and physical imprints that speak of their histories. The reversal of a usual relationship to a photograph collapses the distinction between signifier and signified. The images explore how time destroys these historical objects, layer by layer, marking and disturbing their surfaces. The smudges and traces say as much as the documentation that is obscured.

Obscuration 6 (2018)

The artist’s series of Obscurations work using the same principle as a pinhole camera — the simplest analogue camera, in which the inside of an enclosed box are lined with photosensitive material so the walls are not only the structure and the surface of the object, but also the receiver of the photographic image. In the Obscurations, after an image is captured through numerous holes, the box is opened and developed. The internal, photographic, surface is turned outward and made into a sculptural object. Installed in symbolic places, the Obscuration becomes a part of its architectural topos, a symbolic object, and a photographic image at the same time. Through these relationships the photographic surface (index) acquires the qualities of an object, and the signified, the photographic image (the object-referent), becomes a part of the meaning in the context of a particular site.

Alexander Ugay (b.1978, Kazakhstan; lives and works in Almaty and Seoul) is a leading figure in the Kazakh contemporary art scene, a photographer, video artist and creator of “cinema-objects” within the experimental collective Bronepoezd. He comes from a Korean family deported to Central Asia during the 1930s. Through his work Ugay explores questions concerning memory and nostalgia, with a focus on examining the interaction of history with the present and the future through photography and installation.

Select exhibitions include the Busan Biennial of Contemporary Art (2022); Art Sonje Center, Seoul (2020); Sapar Contemporary, New York (2019); Lunds Konsthall, Sweden (2018); Strasbourg Museum of Contemporary Art (2014); Venice Architectural Biennale (2010); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2010); New Museum, New York (2009); and Central Asian Pavilion, 52nd Venice Biennale (2007). His work is held in the collections of Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Galeria Labirynt, Lublin; National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Astana; and Lunds Konsthall, Sweden.

NIKA Project Space, opened in 2023 in Dubai, is a platform for artistic discourse and experimentation, championing the work of female artists and curators. The gallery presents exhibitions focused on conceptualization, abstraction, and philosophical inquiry, alongside a critically engaged program that includes talks, performances, and educational initiatives. Additionally, it hosts a research program inviting artists to create experimental works, exploring societal experiences and historical narratives. With a focus on artists from the Global South and underrepresented regions, NIKA Project Space fosters the artistic inquiry of emerging and established practitioners.
In 2024, NIKA Project Space inaugurated a European location in the Komunuma art district in Romainville, on the outskirts of Paris. In Dubai, the gallery is located in Al Khayat Avenue, Al Quoz.