Aidan Salahova

In June 2011, Salakhova was representing the Azerbaijan Pavilion among other national artists at the 54th Venice Biennale. Two of her artworks previously approved by the ministry of culture were ordered to be covered and eventually removed from the exhibition a day before the opening, “because of government sensitives towards the nation’s status as a secular Muslim country”. The officials said the works had been damaged during transportation. Commenting on the conflict the pavilion curator Beral Madra stated that the concept of the removed sculptures had been misinterpreted by the government, and added that in over 25 years of curating she “ever experienced this kind of conflict”. In an article entitled “Vagina Art Veiled at Azerbaijan’s Venice Biennale Pavilion, Causing Some to Cry Censorship”, Kate Deimling stated that “Black Stone,” a “sculpture depicting the black stone in Mecca venerated by Muslims within a vagina-like marble frame, were both covered up”.

Founded in Moscow in 1992 by Aidan Salakhova, the gallery today is one of the most prestigious private galleries of modern and contemporary art in Russia. Traditionally, the Aidan Gallery is highly appraised by critics, collectors and audience at international contemporary art fairs and exhibitions, such as The Armony Show (United States), FIAC (France), Liste (Switzerland), Art Forum Berlin (Germany), ARCO (Spain), Vienna Art Fair (Austria), Art Dubai (UAE), Art Brussels (Belgium). The gallery works with artists, who combine straight conceptualism with radical Aestheticism, such as: Rauf Mamedov, Elena Berg, Nikola Ovchinnikov, Konstantin Latyshev and others.

Salakhova has exhibited her work at major international art fairs and biennales, including twice at the Venice Biennale (1991 and 2011) and at the Second Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (2007).

Salahova’s art won recognition not only in the Russian art community, but also internationally. Aidan is a regular participant of major international art fairs and biennales including the Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art (1991, 2011), the 2nd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (2007), etc. In her works, Salakhova investigates gender themes, women’s sexuality in the context of Islam, contrasts between the East and the West, matters of prohibition, esotericism, and beauty. She is one of the key artists on a contemporary Russian art scene working in various mediums, such as photography, sculpture, painting, and installations.

In the late 1980s Salakhova became one of the most significant art figures of the new generation in post-Soviet countries In 2002 Aidan was awarded a silver medal by the Russian Academy of Fine Arts. In 2005-2007 she was a member of the Public Chamber.

Aidan Salakhova (Azerbaijani: Aydan Tair qızı Salahova, born March 25, 1964) is an Azeri and Russian artist, gallerist and public person. In 1992 she founded the Aidan Gallery in Moscow. Salakhova’s works can be found in many private and state collections including the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation, Francois Pinault Foundation, Teutloff Museum and the Boghossian Foundation; in private collections of I. Khalilov, P-K. Broshe, T. Novikov, V. Nekrasov, V. Bondarenko and others. At the 2011 Venice Biennale, Salakhova’s name hit the headlines when her work was politically censored.

Aidan Salahova was born in 1964 in Moscow in the family of Azeri and Russian artist Tahir Salahov, who is the Vice-president of the Russian Academy of Arts, and a laureate of state awards in Russia and Azerbaijan. In 1987 she graduated from the Moscow State Surikov Institute of Fine Arts (Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture) as an external student. Since 2000, Aidan Salakhova is professor at the institute. Since 2007, she is an Academician of the Russian Academy of Fine Arts.