Gayev Nikolai is a graphic artist and a book illustrator. He is the People’s Artist of the Kazakh SSR, a member of the Union of Artists of Kazakhstan, and a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR.

He was born in the village of Medvezhye, Kurgan region, Russia, and graduated from the Sverdlovsk Art College in 1941. He participated in the battles of the Great Patriotic War. After demobilization the artist lived in Almaty, worked at the film studio “Kazakhfilm”, then in 1947 he worked in the publishing house of educational literature “Kazuchpedgiz”, and from 1955 to 1962 in the publishing house of fiction “Kazgoslitizdat”.

The artist worked mainly in the technique of linocut, etching, and easel drawing. He is the author of a graphic series that explores the heroic past of Kazakhstan and the labour heroics of the present. One such work is linocut Despair from the series “Memories”.