Niyaz Najafov

Born in 1968 in Baku (Azerbaijan), the painter Niyaz Najafov represented his country at the Venice Biennale in 2009. In 2010 he moved to Paris and began exhibiting in Western Europe. It has recently integrated the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in Rovereto (Italy), as well as numerous private collections. His latest major exhibition in Europe, "Dancing on Bones," at the Gazelli Art House in London in 2013 earned him a growing interest, an English art critic comparing him to Francis Bacon for the tragic power of his paintings. His works are now exhibited in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Italy, the United States, Germany, Denmark, Egypt, France.

This self-taught artist, who became famous in Azerbaijan, translated into his paintings his existential anguish. He paints scenes of everyday life by giving them an exceptional intensity. This is due to his drawing, to the way he deforms the bodies, but also to his powerful colors, which sometimes make him think of those of Gaugin. In this perpetual struggle of a humanity which he feels as fragile and which is his recurrent theme, comical details often bring a touch of hope. Niyaz Najafov, so far from the cold and calculated conceptual art that invades the media space, is certainly a master of contemporary expressionism.