Aida Mahmudova's works has been exhibited internationally and uses a variety of techniques and media. Despite a varied practice, the artist’s main focus remains her exploration of material as a tool for experimenting with and navigating the world she inhabits.
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.
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.
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).
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.
Solo exhibitions
2019
Selected works, presented by Contemporary Art Advisors, Parallel Vienna, Lassallestrasse, Vienna, Austria
2017
Landscaped, Slovenská filharmónia, Bratislava, Slovakia
Landscaped, Azerbaijan's Culture Center, Vienna, Austria
Can't Capture the Light, Deweer Gallery, Otegem, Belgium (curated by Björn Geldhof)
Desert As It Is, Cuadro Gallery, Dubai, OAE
2015
2013
Internal Peace, Barbarian Art Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
Internal Peace, Kichik GalArt 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, QGallery, Baku, Azerbaijan
Group exhibitions
2019
Живопись, Baku Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Baku, Azerbaijan
2018-
2019
Starry Skies, YARAT traveling exhibition series, Azerbaijan regions (curated by Farah Alakbarli)
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 (curated by Björn Geldhof)
2016
300 Words on Resistance, YARAT Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan (curated by Suad Garayeva-Maleki and Björn Geldhof)
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 (curated by Roberto Lopardo)
Making Histories, YARAT Permanent Collection Exhibition,
YARAT Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan (curated by Suad Garayeva-Maleki)
Vita Vitale, National Pavilion of Azerbaijan, at the 56th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (curated by Artwise)
Candy Mountains and Oil Coasts, exhibition of Azerbaijan artists,
PERMM Museum of Modern Art, Perm, Russia (curated by Nailya Allahverdiyeva)
2014
Here Today, The Old Sorting Office, London, UK (curated by Susie Allen, Laura Culpan and Dea Vanagan of Artwise, a London based-curatorial collective)
Poetics of The Ordinary, YARAT, Azerbaijan Pavillion, Vienna Fair the New Contemporary, Vienna, Austria
Exploring Inward, exhibition in frame Buta Festival, Louise Blouin Foundation, London, United Kingdom (curated by Farah Piriye)
Christie’s Off White contemporary art auction to benefit The Naked Heart Foundation, COSMOSCOW modern art fair, Moscow Manege, Moscow, Russia
Love Me Love Me Not, Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan and its Neighbours, Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku, Azerbaijan (curated by Dina Nasser-Khadivi)
2013
Love Me Love Me Not, Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan and its Neighbours, YARAT, Collateral Event for the 55th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (curated by Dina Nasser-Khadivi)
Home Sweet Home, Azerbaijan Cultural Center, Paris, France
Territory of the wind, open air sculpture museum, Garadagh, Baku, Azerbaijan (curated by Altay Sadigzade)
Home Sweet Home, Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), Baku, Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan: The colors Of Wind and Fire, Imago Mundi Benetton 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; me Collectors Room, Berlin, Germany; Hotel Salomon de Rothschild, Paris, France; Howick Place – Phillips de Pury & Company, London, UK (curated by Hervé Mikaeloff)
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 (co-curator Adam Waymouth)
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