Aquarium / Inspired by Matisse Painting

Ramal Kazimov, born in 1987, is an emerging artist who graduated from Azerbaijani State Academy of Arts in 2008 and got noticed right away by professional critics for his very mature and somewhat dark style. Ramal Kazim was identified at a young age, straight from university, as an artist with huge potential. His works show an incredible maturity for his age, focusing on the uncomfortable realities of human existence through his expressive and very personal style. His works can be rather shocking, forcing the viewer to make some difficult conclusions about the human condition. He has been exhibited on an international level and also recently took part in an artist residency in Italy. Ramal Kazim graduated from the Azerbaijan State Academy of Fine Arts in 2008 and was noticed immediately by professional critics for his very mature and somewhat dark style. Since 2009 he has been a member of the Azerbaijan Artist's Union. Kazim’s works have been exhibited extensively in Azerbaijan and abroad (most notably in Paris) and he recently completed an artist residency in Milan, in cooperation with FARE. Kazim’s expressively realist figures and imagery immediately and bluntly address issues that are taboo in Azerbaijan. Using strategies of shock and provocation, the compositions generate the ‘presence’ of the models through a mixture of unique poses and a sinuous and expressive painting technique. Stylistically echoing the works of Francis Bacon and Edvard Munch, Kazim’s compositions frankly compose a visual diary of human experience through keen observation and acute curiosity. The figures are representative of an experimental portraiture that lives on the border between reality and abstraction. With startling acuity for such a young artist, the compositions balance qualities of violence and tenderness that instills in viewers a sense of both shock and awe, suspending reaction while the mind processes the intriguing works. Images combine broken bottle fragments, violent gestures, and contorted faces that twist in pain and passion. Overt nudity is purposefully stripped of eroticism as one is forced to confront the realities of the flesh in all its textures, faults, and frailties. The sense of provocation and aggression that is such a central element of the artworks is, interestingly, the antithesis of the artist’s own personal qualities. Currently he lives and works in Belgium