The Tolon Museum of Modern Art is an independent institution with a 24-year history of supporting and showcasing contemporary art in Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia. Over two decades, the museum has cultivated a collection of more than 3,000 works by local and international artists, reflecting the diversity and dynamism of the region’s artistic landscape.
In 2023, the museum found a new home in the village of Kuntuu, just 15 minutes from Bishkek. Housed in a repurposed Soviet-era winery, the Kuntuu Art Space opened in September 2023 with seven exhibitions that reactivated the architectural memory of the site and set the tone for a new phase in the museum’s life.
Spread across 20,000 square meters, the museum’s grounds combine exhibition halls, open-air installations, and flexible spaces for performance, workshops, and community gatherings — creating a unique environment for art and dialogue.
Kuntuu is a space where artists live and create. In the former walls of a Soviet winery, the Kuntuu Art Residency brings together emerging and established artists from Kyrgyzstan and around the world. Here they are given time, space, and curatorial support to experiment, reflect, and exchange ideas.
The Tolon Museum of Modern Art is committed to making Central Asian art visible on the global stage while supporting artistic research and new forms of expression. In Kuntuu, contemporary art engages directly with local histories, landscapes, and communities, opening them to dialogue with the wider world.
We invite visitors, researchers, and cultural practitioners to experience Kuntuu as a meeting point of art and life — a place where creativity takes root and new connections are made.
Our team
Gamal Bokonbaev, Director of the Tolon Museum of Modern Art, is a curator, art critic, architect, and cultural researcher who has shaped the discourse of contemporary art in Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia for more than two decades.
Trained as an architect and designer, he began his career as an artist and decorator, later shifting to independent curatorial practice, criticism, and publishing in the mid-2000s. Bokonbaev is the author of major publications on Kyrgyz visual art, including a 410-page study (2007), a comprehensive overview of Kyrgyz art from 1927 to 2015 (2015), and a volume on the Artists’ Union of Kyrgyzstan (2016). His writings and lectures consistently address questions of artistic memory, the legacy of the Soviet era, and the place of Central Asia within the global art context.
Since 2010, as director of the Tolon Museum, he has shaped its vision as an open space for research, exhibitions, and international collaboration. Under his leadership, the museum has built a collection of more than three thousand works — ranging from intimate pieces to monumental installations — and has become a hub for residencies and dialogue among artists from Kyrgyzstan and across the world.
Bokonbaev is also recognized as one of the pioneers of artist residencies in the region: together with entrepreneur Tolondu Toichubaev, he co-founded Uch Emchek (3M-Check), Central Asia’s first rural art residency. His curatorial projects often explore the intersections of local histories, Soviet legacies, and new artistic languages.
Beyond his museum work, he teaches at the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University, where he shares his expertise in art analysis and contemporary visual practices with students.
Today, Gamal Bokonbaev continues to bridge the roles of researcher, practitioner, and cultural mediator, creating spaces where contemporary art enters into dialogue with history, communities, and global processes
Tolondu Toichubaev — entrepreneur, collector, and philanthropist, founder of the Tolon Museum of Modern Art.
For more than two decades, he has supported the development of contemporary art in Kyrgyzstan, building one of the largest private collections in the region. Today, the museum’s holdings include more than three thousand works — from painting and graphics to large-scale installations and sculptures.
When creating the museum, Toichubaev envisioned it not only as a space for preserving art but as a living platform for dialogue, experimentation, and cultural exchange. In 2010, he initiated the founding of the Tolon Museum, and in 2023 the museum relocated to the village of Kuntuu, where the Kuntuu Art Space opened — a new site for exhibitions and residencies.
Toichubaev is also the co-founder of Uch Emchek (3M-Check), Central Asia’s first rural artist residency, which became a landmark step in the development of residency practices in the region. His support for artists, encouragement of bold projects, and dedication to building international connections have made the museum not only a cultural institution but also a meeting point of local and global artistic processes.
Today, Tolondu Toichubaev continues to develop the museum as an open space where art, research, and community come together.
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