Aida Mahmudovas Solo Exhibition HEAVEN CAN WAIT.
On November 17th, at 19:00, at Zurab Tsereteli Museum of Modern Art will be opened Aida Mahmudovas Solo Exhibition HEAVEN CAN WAIT.
Aida Mahmudova is an Azerbaijani artist and founder of YARAT Contemporary Art Space (Baku). She holds a BA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martin's College of Art and Design (London).
Since 2011 she has participated in many International Exhibitions, also at the 56th La Biennale di Venezia in the Azerbaijan Pavilion.
Aida Mahmudova is niece of Mehriban Aliyeva - First lady of Azerbaijan.
Exhibition will continue until February 10th at the Zurab Tsereteli Museum of Modern Art.
For Mahmudova the process is everything and her textured works act as tokens of memory, each layer exposing a particular moment on the artist's personal time-space continuum.
Harmonious with the physical nature of her chosen materials and her preferred earthly palette, Mahmudova’s oeuvre continues to invoke the full spectrum of universal human sentiments of love, loss, memory and desire.
Early on in her work, Mahmudova developed a curiosity towards material, which manifested itself through experimentation with light, color and matter in her landscapes and semi-abstract canvases. As her paintings became increasingly more layered the artist expanded her practice into the three dimensional, applying the same approach to sculpture and creating environments both emotive and intense. The artist continually mixes layer upon layer of widely diverse material, such as paper, clay, paint, cement, stone, and, more recently, epoxy resin and untreated marble. These materials take on an almost human quality for the artist as she explores the ways in which they connect, interact and affect one another. Deeply intuitive, the artist uses these experiments as tools for her own material growth and emotional healing.
In 2011, Aida Mahmudova founded YARAT as a hub for supporting work of young artists both locally and internationally. After many years of successful operation and international programming, YARAT now boasts 3 exhibition spaces in Baku with dynamic, commission-based programming by leading international, regional, and Azerbaijani artists, as well as an Artist Residency programme and an array of Public and Educational Programs and Events.
“Heaven Can Wait”
Firat Arapoglu
In order to explore all the possibilities of our existence, we have to turn to art and the social sciences. While there are universal values of art, we must not forget that our literary and visual context is strictly local. The following point is essential: The reality in which a person feels himself/herself most profoundly is the artistic reality that leads us to the universal reality. Here, Aida Mahmudova takes us to a kind of landscape, to the reality of the landscape, to save us from the claustrophobia of the self.
Although the reality of the landscape that the artist created at the center of the “Heaven Can Wait” exhibition may seem personal and difficult to understand at first glance, the artist critiques the pathology of the self. On the one hand, life stands before us in all its anatomical reality, and in some cases, life appears as much more than a landscape. However, trying to separate life from the landscape will also lead us to a kind of alienation. All life, all personal or social history, takes place in a landscape, in geography, and there is always some place that resonates in our memory.
Mahmudova states that geography is an essential dimension of civilization, and that people can be contacted within this geography. Two large canvases at the center of the exhibition tell us about geography and its diversity and importance, while also drawing our attention to its beauty and horror. These canvases, which symbolize the beginning and the end, also contain clues about the past and the future. The paintings, which are in harmony with the fragmentary structure of our age, mark an organism's return to its original point after its entire natural cycle (birth, life, and death).
While the artist depicts the world by looking at humanity, she also affirms our shared experience through herself. It is a call made by Mahmudova: The power of art summons and affects our minds, nerves, memories, emotions, and, ultimately, souls. She expresses our existence in the world through the negative castings of the molds she took from her own body and the volumes they occupy in the void. She also conveys hope in her canvases and surface works that she hangs from the ceiling. In these landscapes, we can see our memories as well as glimpses of our future. In her works, she proclaims that through art, we can fight material and spiritual evils, and communicate the ideals of the past, present, and future. Mahmudova shows us the universal importance and power of art because she makes people remember their lives and their history with her works.
Art no longer confines itself to describing, measuring, and analyzing the world as it appears. Mahmudova believes that geography and memory are too abstract to be presented in a naturalist way. While Mahmudova’s works convey that art contributes to the world's renewal, she states that modern time and space are insecure and introverted. Therefore, the world is depicted as an open composition on the edges of the canvases. Her works can be a means of discovery and expression for the audience; she calls for greater openness and creativity where barriers to meaning are removed.
With a courageous pioneering action, Mahmudova shows us that humanity can transcend borders with appropriate skills and tools. As a result, the exhibition seeks to cross physical and conceptual borders. Unless we cross these borders, we will not have humanist geography. A careful look at the works will provide us with significant clues to understand a little bit about how this can happen, and if we dare.
History of Solo Exhibitions:
2022
Liminality, Gazelli Art House, London, UK
2021
PASTPRESENTSFUTURE, Sapar Contemporary Gallery, New York, USA
2019
Selected works, Contemporary Art Advisors, Parallel Vienna, Lassallestrasse, Vienna, Austria
2018
Non-imagined Perspectives, YARAT Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan
2017
Landscaped, Slovenská filharmónia, Bratislava, Slovakia
Landscaped, Azerbaijan's Culture Center, Vienna, Austria
Can't Capture the Light, Deweer Gallery, Otegem, Belgium
Desert As It Is, Cuadro Gallery, Dubai, OAE
2016
Umwelt, YAY Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan
2015
Passing By..., Leila Heller Gallery, New York, USA Elysium, MoMA, Baku, Azerbaijan
2013
Internal Peace, Barbarian Art Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
Internal Peace, Kichik Gal Art Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan
2006
Solo exhibition, in collaboration with pianist Murad Adigezalzadeh, devoted to the 120th jubilee of Uzeyir Hajibeyov, Azerbaijan State Philharmonic Hall, Baku, Azerbaijan
2002
First Solo Exhibition, Q Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan
History of Group Exhibitions:
2022
Art Dubai, Gazelli Art House Booth, Madinat Jumeirah Conference & Events Centre, Dubai, UAE
2020
Fogs Turned Into Epic Story in My Head, YARAT Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan
2019
Живопись, Baku Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Baku, Azerbaijan
2018-2019
Starry Skies, Traveling exhibition, Azerbaijan regions
2018
Bodily Landscapes, YAY Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan
Her shey qayidacaq, Gazelli Art House, London, UK
2017
Between the Sea and Mountains, YAY Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan
2016
300 Words on Resistance, YARAT Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan
Art Dubai, YAY Gallery Stand F8, Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai, UAE
Art Paris Fair, YAY Gallery Booth G6, Grand Palais, Paris, France
2015
Meeting Point, Cuadro Gallery, Dubai, UAE
Making Histories, YARAT Permanent Collection Exhibition,
YARAT Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan
Vita Vitale, National Pavilion of Azerbaijan, at the 56th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
Candy Mountains and Oil Coasts, exhibition of Azerbaijan artists,
PERMM Museum of Modern Art, Perm, Russia
2014
Here Today, The Old Sorting Office, London, UK
Poetics of The Ordinary, Azerbaijan Pavillion, Vienna Fair the New Contemporary, Vienna, Austria
Exploring Inward, exhibition in frame Buta Festival,
Louise Blouin Foundation, London, United Kingdom
Christie’s Off White contemporary art auction to benefit The Naked Heart Foundation, Cosmoscow modern art fair, Moscow Manege, Moscow, Russia
The Art of Humanity, Treviso, Luciano Benetton Collection, Collection book and exhibition, Italy
Love Me Love Me Not, Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan and its Neighbours, Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku, Azerbaijan
2013
Love Me Love Me Not, Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan and its Neighbours, Collateral Event for the 55th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
Home Sweet Home, Azerbaijan Cultural Center, Paris, France
Territory of the Wind, open air sculpture museum, Garadagh, Baku, Azerbaijan
Home Sweet Home, Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), Baku, Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan: The colors Of Wind and Fire, Imago Mundi Benetton Collection, Collection book and exhibition, Gallerie delle Prigioni, Treviso, Italy
2012-2013
Fly to Baku. Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan. Travel exhibition series. Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku, Azerbaijan; Kunsthistorisches museum – Neue Burg, Vienna, Austria; Spazio D – MAXXI building National Museum of XXI Century arts, Rome, Italy; Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, Russia; Collectors Room, Berlin, Germany; Hotel Salomon de Rothschild, Paris, France; Howick Place – Phillips de Pury & Company, London, UK
2012
012 Baku Public Art Festival, organised by YARAT Contemporary Art Space, Baku, Azerbaijan
Commonist, YARAT’s alternative art space, Baku, Azerbaijan
Merging Bridges, International Group Exhibition, Museum of Modern Art, Baku, Azerbaijan
2011
Foreword, YARAT’s alternative art space, Baku, Azerbaijan
The Land Of Fire, Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan, Hotel d’ Evreux, Paris, France
Maiden Tower, 1st International Festival of Arts, Baku, Azerbaijan
