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).

Her work 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.

In 2011, Aida Mahmudova founded YARAT Contemporary Art Space 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

2018
Non-imagined PerspectivesYARAT Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan
2017
LandscapedSlovenská filharmónia, Bratislava, Slovakia
LandscapedAzerbaijan's Culture Center, Vienna, Austria
Can't Capture the LightDeweer Gallery, Otegem, Belgium
2016
UmweltYAY Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan
ElisiumMoMA, Baku, Azerbaijan
2015
Passing By...Leila Heller Gallery, New York, USA
2014
Internal PeaceBarbarian Art Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
Internal PeaceKichik GalArt Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan
2006
Solo exhibition, in collaboration with pianist Murad Adigezalzadeh, devoted to the 120th jubilee of Uzeyir HajibeyovAzerbaijan State Philharmonic Hall, Baku, Azerbaijan
2002
First Solo ExhibitionQ Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan

Group exhibitions

2019
ЖивописьBaku Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Baku, Azerbaijan
2018-2019
Starry SkiesTraveling exhibition, Azerbaijan regions, Shemkir
2018
Bodily LandscapesYAY Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan
Hər shey qayidacaqGazelli Art House, London, UK
2017
Between the Sea and MountainsYAY Gallery, Azerbaijan
2016
300 Words on ResistanceYARAT Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan
Art DubaiYAY Gallery Stand F8, Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai, UAE
Art Paris FairYAY Gallery Booth G6, Grand Palais, Paris, France
2015
Meeting PointDubai, UAE
Exploring InwardExhibition in frame Buta Festival, Louise Blouin Foundation, London, United Kingdom
Making HistoriesYARAT Permanent Collection Exhibition, YARAT Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan
Vita VitaleNational Pavilion of Azerbaijan, at the 56th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
Candy Mountains and Oil CoastsExhibition of Azerbaijan artists, PERMM Museum of Modern Art, Perm, Russia
2014
Here TodayThe Old Sorting Office, London, UK
Poetics of The OrdinaryAzerbaijan Pavillion, Vienna Fair the New Contemporary, Vienna, Austria
Love Me Love Me NotContemporary Art from Azerbaijan and its Neighbours, Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku, Azerbaijan
2013
Love Me Love Me NotContemporary Art from Azerbaijan and its Neighbours, Collateral Event for the 55th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
Home Sweet HomeAzerbaijan 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
2012
012 Baku Public Art FestivalOrganised by YARAT Contemporary Art Space, Baku, Azerbaijan
CommonistYARAT’s alternative art space, Baku, Azerbaijan
Merging BridgesInternational Group Exhibition, Museum of Modern Art, Baku, Azerbaijan
2011
ForewordYARAT’s alternative art space, Baku, Azerbaijan
The Land Of FireContemporary Art from Azerbaijan, Hotel d’ Evreux, Paris, France
Maiden Tower1st International Festival of Arts, Baku, Azerbaijan