Aida Mahmudova

Born in 1982 | Baku, Azerbaijan

https://www.aidamahmudova.com

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Education:
2009: BA Fashion Marketing, American Intercontinental University
2006: BA Fine Art, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design
 


Aida Mahmudova is an artist living and working in Baku. She has exhibited both locally and internationally, including group and solo exhibitions in Belgium, London, Rome, New York, Dubai, Vienna, Moscow, and Baku. Apart from her art practice, Mahmudova is an important contributor to the local art scene encouraging the development and accessibility of contemporary art in Baku. She founded Yarat Contemporary Art Centre, a non-profit organization operating since 2011 as an art hub for local and international artists for exhibiting their work, as well as offering art residency programs, a studio space, workshops, lectures, and other cultural events in Baku. In 2012, she also founded a social enterprise named YAY Gallery, now operating under the name of ARTIM Project Space, an alternative space hosting exhibitions and workshops. Mahmudova has been a director of the Baku Museum of Modern Art since 2012.

She mainly works in installation, painting, and sculpture with a focus on the theme of exploration of material. In 2015, she had her first solo exhibition ‘Passing By’ in the US at the Leila Heller Gallery. Her work was included in the exhibition of Azerbaijani artists named “Fly To Baku” shown in Rome, Moscow, Berlin, London, and Paris.

Through her art, Aida navigates the world and space she inhabits, experimenting with both her surroundings and the process of creating. She frequently refers to the use of layering to offer a variety in dimensions and aspects in the objects she creates via painting or sculpting. Another common theme in Aida’s work is the not-so-persistent nature of memory and the unavoidableness of forgetting. The tendency to forget in humans and even spaces, architecture, and landscapes affects the notion of identity since it can be distorted and lost when not remembered, leading to the attempt of its recreation. Mahmudova’s interpretation of this phenomenon can be spotted while analyzing her works. In her solo show “Non-imagined Perspectives” the artist explores and questions the accepted, perceived, and alternative perspectives on places and their position relative to each other and earth.



Exhibitions and Events

Solo exhibitions
2021: PastPresentFuture, Sapar Contemporary Gallery, New York, USA
2018: Non-imagined Perspectives, YARAT, Baku, Azerbaijan

2017: Landscaped, Slovenská filharmónia, Bratislava, Slovakia
2017: Landscaped, Azerbaijan's Culture Center, Vienna, Austria
2017: Can't Capture the Light, Deweer Gallery, Otegem, Belgium
2016: Umwelt, YAY Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan
2016: Elisium, MoMA, Baku, Azerbaijan
2015: Passing By..., Leila Heller Gallery, New York, USA
2014: Internal Peace, Barbarian Art Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
2014: Internal Peace, Kichik GalArt Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan
2006: Solo exhibition, in collaboration with pianist Murad Adigezalzadeh, Azerbaijan State Philharmonic Hall, Baku, Azerbaijan
2002: First Solo Exhibition, Q Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan

Group exhibitions
2020: Fogs turned into epic story in my head, YARAT Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan
2019: Paintings, MOMA, Baku, Azerbaijan
2018-2019: Starry Skies, Traveling exhibition, Azerbaijan regions
2018: Bodily Landscapes, YAY Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan
2018: 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
2016: Art Dubai, YAY Gallery Stand F8, Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai, UAE
2016: Art Paris Fair, YAY Gallery Booth G6, Grand Palais, Paris, France
2015: Meeting Point, Dubai, UAE
2015: Exploring Inward, Exhibition in frame Buta Festival, Louise Blouin
Foundation, London, United Kingdom
2015: Making Histories, YARAT Permanent Collection Exhibition, YARAT Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan
2015: Vita Vitale, National Pavilion of Azerbaijan, at the 56th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
2015:Candy Mountains and Oil CoastsExhibition of Azerbaijan artists, PERMM Museum of Modern Art, Perm, Russia
2014: Here Today, The Old Sorting Office, London, UK
2014: Poetics of The Ordinary, Azerbaijan Pavillion, Vienna Fair the New Contemporary, Vienna, Austria
2014: 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
2013: Home Sweet Home, Azerbaijan Cultural Center, Paris, France; Baku Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), Baku, Azerbaijan
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; me Collectors Room, Berlin, Germany; Hotel Salomon de Rothschild, Paris, France; Howick Place – Phillips de Pury & Company, London, UK
2013: 012 Baku Public Art Festival, Organised by YARAT Contemporary Art Space, Baku, Azerbaijan
2013: Commonist, YARAT’s alternative art space, Baku, Azerbaijan
2013: 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
2011: Maiden Tower, 1st International Festival of Arts, Baku, Azerbaijan


Sources:
https://gazelliarthouse.com/artists/aida-mahmudova/overview/
https://varyox.az/visart/aida-mahmudova-en/

 
40.3711110, 49.8374440, 2022
Mixed media on canvas, 150 x 120 cm


Composition 13, 2022
Mixed media, 29.5 x 41.8 cm


Untitled 15, 2017
Mixed media on plywood 100 x 100 cm

Deweer Gallery, Otegem, Belgium



Flower beds, 2016
Mixed media on canvas 150 x 250 cm
YAY Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan


Landscape, 2015
Mixed media on canvas 150 x 250 cm
Baku Museum of Modern Art, Baku, Azerbaijan