Aigerim Arginbayeva is a Kazakh-born artist based in London. Working between painting and drawing, she explores memory, emotion, and identity.
After studying Graphic Design and Illustration at Central Saint Martins and working as an illustrator (Lesidris), she turned to painting following motherhood - a shift that brought a more physical, intuitive approach. She recently completed a Graduate Diploma in Fine Art at the Royal College of Art.
In my practice, I keep returning to Kazakh folklore not because I have answers, but because I have questions I can’t put down. Who am I? What have I inherited? How much of me is left once you remove the cultural codes: the stories, the sayings, the symbols, the roles assigned before I could choose?
I toy with inheritance. I take what has been handed down: sacred figures , heroic archetypes, traditional ornaments, folk sayings, and reimagine them through humor, symbolism and invented narrative. There is always a question in my mind : can I do this? Am I allowed?
That tension is where the work lives. I don’t know yet whether these things are in my DNA or have been pressed into me by culture and expectation.
My paintings don’t resolve that. They just keep asking.
Illustration
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about my illustrations or potenial projects you would like to discuss, I’d be happy to hear from you.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about my illustrations or potenial projects you would like to discuss, I’d be happy to hear from you.
Aigerim Arginbayeva (aka Lesidris) is a London based illustrator born in Kazakhstan. She studied graphic design in Central Saint Martins College, University of Arts London. Aigerim is inspired by traditions and culture of the country of her birth which are clearly reflected in many of her works.
At present Aigerim is focusing on illustrating children’s books and prints, but nevertheless, the main theme of Aigerim’s creative work is unveiling in an amusing and unconventional way the inner world of a human in everyday life.
London, United Kingdom
+44 740 396 0154
Almaty, Kazakhstan
+7 708 888 8077
LESIDRIS@GMAIL.COM
@lesidris
Shop
shop.lesidris.com
Paintings
Birth, 2024acrylic on canvas
100x100cm
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Baby blues, 2024acrylic on canvas
100x100cm
DM for price: lesidris@gmail.com
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Infinite love, 2024
acrylic on canvas
100x100cm
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Umai, 2024acrylic on canvas
90x 100 cm
on Sale
DM for price: lesidris@gmail.com
This character draws inspiration from Central Asian ornaments, as well as from the mythological goddess Umai, who embodies the archetype of the Great Mother and the feminine principle in Turkic mythology.
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‘Children are the flowers of life’, 2023
acrylic, ink on board
SOLD
594 x 841 mm
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Mothers, 2022
acrylic on canvas
170x80cm
Sold
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The abduction of Zeus, work in progressacrylic, pastel on canvas
157x130cm
private collection