IRINA ELDAROVA Born Moscow, Russia, 1955 Lives and works Baku
Irina Eldarova attended the Repin State Academy of Fine Arts, Sculpture and Architecture in St Petersburg in 1975–79 and the Surikov State Academic Art Institute in Moscow in 1980–82 where she was a student of Boris Dexterev. Eldarova worked as a book illustrator straight after completing her studies. Her active artistic carrier not only includes painting – she also works on developing artistic concepts for major publishing projects in Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. In 2007, Eldarova was awarded the prize of the Union of Journalists of Kazakhstan for the best Media Project published by Kazakhstan State Book. She developed a design project that included monumental marble reliefs for the underground station Halglar Dostlugu in Baku. Eldarova also works with photography, video art, journalism and teaches photo design at Western University in Baku.
Solo exhibitions 2010 ‘Hello! This is me’, Museum Centre, Baku 2007 ‘Fire Worshippers’, Baku Centre of Arts, Baku 1998 ‘Aggressive Still-Life’, Humay Gallery, London
Selected group exhibitions 2010 ‘Philosophy of Spring’, Museum Centre, Baku ‘Summer Vernissage’, Museum Centre, Baku ‘Azerbaijani Art on the Cusp of the Centuries’, Museum Centre, Baku 2009 ‘Black and White’, Museum Centre, Baku ‘To be a Woman’, International Exhibition-Forum, Contemporary Art Centre, Baku 2007 ‘Craft as Art and Art as Craft’, XII International Art Symposium, Shaki, Azerbaijan ‘Aluminium 3’, International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Baku 2006 ‘Visual Arts’, First Ganja International Festival, Khan’s Garden, Ganja, Azerbaijan 2001 Humay Gallery, London [the first exhibition of Azerbaijani and Kazakhstani artists in London]
Irina Eldarova began her artistic career as an illustrator at the
monumental scale. A particular and unique area of her work
Children’s Literature Publishing House. She participated in many
is dedicated to the symbiosis of the miniature and the monumental,
exhibitions in the former Soviet Union and abroad. Her works are part
such as can be found in her large composition consisting of small
of the Tretyakov Gallery collection in Moscow, the Russian Academy
square canvases of less than half a metre each.
of Fine Arts, the Museum of Modern Art in Baku, the Mustafayev Museum of Arts, the Baku Arts Centre and various private
A number of works by Eldarova are unabashedly objectivist. Sometimes
collections. The artist has participated in many famous domestic art
these even become a series (for example the series dedicated to great
forums and symposiums. She has also collaborated with a number
men in history, depicting Churchill, Khrushchev, Kennedy and Sarkozy).
of international media outlets and is currently the art director for
Nevertheless, many of her works are, as a rule, thematically
Caspian Publishing House. Since 1996, Eldarova has been a member
independent paintings of which the Emotional Splash series is a good
of the British Association of Journalists.
example. The lack of objects in these compositions does not preclude them from having a mantra-like effect on the viewer – the interplay
She works in various media, including watercolours, but most of her
among localized patches of colour and separate lines mesmerizes the
works are executed in mixed media on a large, sometimes
viewer and submerges him into a parallel world.
Azerbaijan_UK_Jan12.indd 54
01/12/11 18.17