Orkhan Huseynov
b. 1978 in Baku
He lives and works in Baku
Orkhan Huseynov graduated from The Faculty of Ceramic Design at the Azimzadeh State Art College in Baku in 1995, and from The Faculty of Ceramic Design at Azerbaijan State University of Culture and Art in 1999. He received his Master’s Degree in 2000 from The Faculty of Art History and Theory at The Azerbaijan State Academy of Fine Art in Baku.
Orkhan is equally prolific in painting, installation, video, drawing and other media. From the outset, the focus of his work became the admiration of his country’s folk tradition and history, especially in its post-Soviet reawakening. Culture, art, everyday life, monuments, and traditional games all find a place in his work. He devoted, for instance, an entire series to Pre-Revolutionary Baku: the Governor’s Garden, oil fields, night-time Torgovaya Street, restaurants, law firms, markets and the private lives of the city’s inhabitants. All this was done with elegance, taste and humour, as well as with great historical accuracy.
More serious themes also find expression in his work, such as Azerbaijan and its history, including the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. However, Huseynov’s works are far wider reaching in geographical and temporal terms, achieving a sense of universality. His conceptual work is similarly ambitious. For example, Sabir and Splash are planar objects made of plexiglass in which monochromatic colour emphasises its graphic qualities, while clear lines accentuate a poster-like element. Splash invites viewers to meditate and reach their own conclusion. Sabir, on the other hand, is a tribute to the memory of the genius Azerbaijani poet-satirist Sabir. The drop of blood on the poet’s lips could be explained by the words spoken on his deathbed: “I laid my flesh down for my people. But if God gave me more time, I would lay my bones down too”.
Solo Exhibitions
2013
The Office, Kichik QalArt Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan
2003
V. Samedova Exhibition Hall, Baku, Azerbaijan
Old Baku, Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2000
Vakif Bank Art Gallery, Ankara, Turkey
Orkhan Huseynov – Graphics, Humay Azeri Cultural Centre, London, UK
1999
V. Samedova Exhibition Hall, Baku, Azerbaijan
Selected Group Exhibitions
2014
Contemporary Istanbul, Istanbul Congress Hall, Istanbul, Turkey
Poetics of the Ordinary, Viennafair: The New Contemporary, Azerbaijan Pavillion, Messe Vienna, Austria
Love Me, Love Me Not, Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan and its Neighbours, Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku, Azerbaijan
2012-2013
Fly to Baku: Contemporary Art From 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; Phillips de Pury& Company, London, UK
2012
Merging Bridges, Museum of Modern Art, Baku, Azerbaijan
012 Baku Public Art Festival, Baku, Azerbaijan
Commonist, organised by YARAT Contemporary Art Space, Baku, Azerbaijan
2011
Foreword, Alternative Art Place, Baku, Azerbaijan
Fabulous Four, ArtExEast Foundation, Baku, Azerbaijan
The Journey to the East, Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków (MOCAK), Krakow, Poland; Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok, Poland
2010
Ground Floor America, Den Frie Centre for Contemporary Art, Copenhagen
Contemporary Art of Azerbaijan, Aidan Gallery, Moscow, Russia
Under The Scalding Sun, The German Church, Baku, Azerbaijan
2009
Transformation: Aluminum 4, International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Baku, Azerbaijan
Bakunlimited, Cultural Days of Azerbaijan, Voltahalle, Basel, Switzerland
M'artian Fields: Collaboration of Young Artists, M’ARS Gallery, Moscow, Russia
Steps of Time, part of Azerbaijan Culture Days in Germany, Dresden
2008
Art Is Not Only Ugly, Atrium of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Berlin, Germany
Steps of Time: Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan, Residenzschloss, Dresden, Germany
Minimum Wage Project, Centre of Contemporary Arts, Baku, Azerbaijan
2007
Omnia Mea, Azerbaijan Pavilion, Venice Biennale, Italy
Realities of Dreams: Aluminum 3, International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Baku Azerbaijan
2006
Caucasus, Moscow State Centre for Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia
East or West, International Art Festival, Museum of Art, Die, France
2005
Man & Women, curator and participant, with the French Embassy in Azerbaijan, Museum Centre Art Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan
Aluminum 2, International Contemporary Art Biennial, Museum Centre Art Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan
2004
Metro – Space, former Galéria Priestor for Contemporary Arts, Bratislava, Slovakia
2003
7+7. More Transparent, The Museum Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan
1st International Biennial: Aluminum, Baku, Azerbaijan
Inout, International Festival of Digital Art, Prague, Czech Republic
Last East European Show, Museum of Modern Art, Belgrade, Serbia
2002
Orientalism: Inside & Outside. International exhibition, Sattar Bakhlulzade Exhibition Hall, Baku, Azerbaijan
Caucasian Aleatory, Batumi, Georgia
Cosmopolitica, International Music Festival ‘New Music from the Last Century’, Baku, Azerbaijan
2001
Turkish-American Association’s Gallery, Ankara, Turkey
2000
Wings of Time, Exhibition of Young Artists, Khagani Art Center, Baku, Azerbaijan
