ARAL I

From the series Steppe

Aral I takes its name from the Aral Sea, once the fourth-largest lake in the world, which shrank to a fraction of its size after Soviet-era irrigation diverted the rivers that fed it. Since a dam was completed in 2005, the northern part has been recovering, and fish and birds have returned. Gali painted it as a picture of that recovery: “a message of optimism and hope, one that looks to the future and does not dwell on the past.”

2015

200 x 200 cm

Acrylic and oil on canvas

Exhibited: Rhythm in the Blues, 14 Percy Street, London, 12 – 20 May 2026

Enquiries: the studio