Faig Ahmed

Faig Ahmed (b. 1982) represented Azerbaijan at the 2007 Biennale in Venice and is considered to be one of the most important contemporary artists from the Middle East. His conceptual works, which combine traditional carpet weaving with contemporary sculptural techniques, have earned him international acclaim. The confrontation between the millennia-old tradition of craftsmanship and modern-day image production strategies reveals unimagined potential for reflection on the interplay between culture and religion, craftsmanship and art. Ahmed's first monograph offers deep insights into the creative processes behind his art and for the first time brings together all of the works created between 2007 and 2023, as well as visualisations of future projects. Numerous interviews and art-historical essays complete the volume and allow for a powerful exploration of the work of this exceptional artist. AUTHOR: Faig Ahmed born in 1982 in Sumqayit, graduated Azerbaijan State Academy of Fine Art in 2004 with a major in Sculpture, lives and works in Baku, Azerbaijan. He represented Azerbaijan at the nation's inaugural pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2007 and participated in Love Me, Love Me Not show in 2013. In the same year, Ahmed was nominated for The Jameel Prize at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Ahmed represents a new wave of contemporary artists exploring crafts in innovative ways to produce conceptual works that break away from conventions associated with the craft, by bringing it into a global contemporary art context. Ahmed explores fresh new visual forms that examine tradition and challenge our perception of traditions through iconic cultural objects. The artist experiments with traditional materials and colours such as the rug weavings in Azerbaijan or Indian embroidery, and a variety of other media. He has exhibited his works worldwide, including exhibitions in New York, Paris, London, Berlin, Rome, Venice, Dubai, Washington D.C., Hong Kong, Mumbai, Moscow, Azerbaijan, Sweden, Norway, Honolulu, Melbourne, and Sydney. SELLING POINTS: . First monograph with an overview of his work between 2007 and 2023, with visualisations of future projects that offer an exclusive preview . Ahmed's conceptual works unite and address highly controversial topics such as the clash of cultures, tradition and digitalisation, religion and secularisation, high culture and popular culture, often united in a single work of art