Zarnishan Yusif

Born in 1985 in Baku, Azerbaijan Baku-based contemporary artist Zarnishan Yusif was educated at the Azerbaijan State Academy of Fine Art, where she gained both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. A member of the Young Artists’ section of the Azerbaijan Union of Artists. She has been the recipient of various art prizes in Azerbaijan. She has exhibited her work and participated

in festivals all over the world in places such as Spain, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, China, India, Austria, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Russia. Her work was included in the 2012-2014 traveling exhibition ‘Fly to Baku’ of Azerbaijani contemporary art that toured European capitals. In Baku, Zarnishan has held two solo exhibitions including ‘Money, Money, Money’ in 2018 at Q Gallery and ‘Old Baku’ at the ATV Gallery in 2016. She has also participated in various projects for the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and Yarat Contemporary Art Space, where her work was shown in ‘Foreword,’ the first exhibition held by Yarat, and in the 2016 exhibition ‘Half-Truth’ at the ARTIM Project Space. In 2019, her installation ‘Bubble Reflection’ was commissioned for the Azerbaijan National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. In her two solo exhibitions in Baku, she presented collaged works combining painting with archival paper elements. In the exhibition ‘Old Baku’ (2016), she created a series of atmospheric painted collages in shades of blue, ochre, red and green overlaid with patterns of fabric, carpet motifs and lace, inset with antique photographs of people dressed in traditional Azerbaijani clothing, old book pages, and historic postcards, which appear in the impressionistic painted background as a dream-like glimpse of Baku’s past. The work is both nostalgic and contemporary, bringing the past into the present and acknowledging its enduring legacy in Azerbaijani identity. Zarnishan continued to work with collage technique in her 2018 solo exhibition ‘Money, Money, Money’ at Q Gallery, in which she overlaid currency from Azerbaijan over brightly painted fields, the paper money emerging and disappearing from within the painted canvas; she has also created additional series of works using currency from around the world and a series of currency and iconography from China. In her 2019 contribution to the Azerbaijan National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale ‘Bubble Reflection’, she critiqued social media and virtual reality as corrosive agents in human relationships and community life. The immersive installation was created from clear plexiglass stylized human figures embedded with the outline of computer chips and circuitry. The figures were lined up closely together as automations and when viewed from the front, a series of reflective spheres hung in the middle of the line of figures was revealed, suggesting the pervasive ‘group-think’ so common in the increasingly artificial global reality and people’s preference to lead empty lives presented through social media. Zarnishan’s astute observations of history and heritage in her body of work suggest that the past must inform the future for culture to survive. EDUCATION: 2007 graduated from the Art Academy, Baku, Azerbaijan 2009 graduated from the Art Academy, magister, Baku, Azerbaijan MEMBERSHIP: Since 2009 The Young Artists’ Section at the Union of Artists of Azerbaijan PRIZES: 2017 Competition devoted to the Day of Independence, third winner, Exhibition Saloon n/a V.Samedova, the UAA, Baku, Azerbaijan 2015 Competition “The Tolerance of Azerbaijani Youth”, first winner, Exhibition Saloon n/a V.Samedova, the UAA, Baku, Azerbaijan 2012 “Young Talant - 2012” competition, first winner, Museum Center, Baku, Azerbaijan 2012-2014 Competition devoted to the Day of Khojaly, encouraging prize, Exhibition Saloon n/a V.Samedova, the UAA, Baku, Azerbaijan 2011, 2014 grant of Union of Artists of Azerbaijan SOLO EXHIBITIONS: 2018 "Money Money Money", QGallery, Baku, Azerbaijan 2016 "Old Baku", ATV Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan EXHIBITIONS: 2019 II International Painting Symposium, Portimao, Portugal 2019 Exhibition“Virtual Reality”, Azerbaijan Pavilion, 58th Venice Art Biennale, Italy 2017 "100 View points Plovdiv" II stage, Resonance gallery, Plovdiv, Bulgaria 2017 VI International "From Waste to Art" exhibition, Baku, Azerbaijan 2017 International Contemporary Art Exhibition, Songyang, China 2017 "The Fourth Silk Road Art Exhibition", Shaanxi Provincial Art Museum, Xi'an, China 2017 A creative workshop on gender equality. UNESCO Cultural Heritage Project, Baku, Azerbaijan 2016 "Heart Project", H.Aliyev Foundation project, Baku, Azerbaijan 2016 "Hulf Truths", Artim Project Space, Yarat 2016 Olimpia Fine Arts, Internaional Contemporary Art Festival, Guwahati, India 2016 "Sirga olsun" exhibition, Center of Contemporary Art, Baku, Azerbaijan 2015 Night at Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Baku, Azerbaijan 2015 Colour of Coffea, Museum Center, Baku, Azerbaijan 2015 Maiden Tower VI International Art Festival, Old City, Baku, Azerbaijan 2015 Azerbaijani paintings of the XX - XXI centuries, Baku, Azerbaijan 2015 “The Tolerance of Azerbaijani Youth”, Azerbaijan Culture Center, Vienna, Austria 2015 Exhibition devoted to the Day of Khojaly, Museum Center, Baku, Azerbaijan 2014 Semeni, International Art Contest, Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku, Azerbaijan 2013 Fly to Baku, Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku, Azerbaijan 2013 Tradition & Contemporaneity, exhibition of young artists, Art Academy, Baku, Azerbaijan 2013 Fly to Baku, Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria 2012 Blue water, Four seasons Hotel, Baku, Azerbaijan 2012 Sport Art, Museum Center, Baku, Azerbaijan 2012 Exhibition devoted to the Day of Azerbaijanian Young, Exhibition Saloon n/a S. Bahlulzade, Baku, Azerbaijan 2011 “Winter” drawing exhibition of azerbaijanian artists, Museum Center, Baku, Azerbaijan 2011 Foreword, Yarat Contemporary Art Space, Baku, Azerbaijan 2011 5th Meeting of artist & creations”, Antalya, Turkey 2011 First Geshaview International Art Festival, Geshaview, Bulgaria 2010 Gabala I International Art Exhibition, Gabala, Azerbaijan 2010 “Point X...” drawing exhibition of azerbaijanian artists, Museum Center, Baku, Azerbaijan 2010 Human Colours, Music, International MAIL ART Exhibition 2 in Thessaloniki, Greece 2010 Gusar Art Symposium, Gusar, Azerbaijan 2010 “Selfportret” drawing exhibition, Museum Center, Baku, Azerbaijan 2010 2. Tepecik International, Cultural-Art, Friendship and Sport Festival, Aydin, Turkey 2010 Human Colours, Music, International MAIL ART Exhibition in Syntagma Square, Athens, Greece 2010 “Phylosophy of spring” modern drawing exhibition, Museum Center, Baku, Azerbaijan 2010 Din A4 International Drawing Project, Malaga, Spain 2010 Exhibition devoted to the Day of Woman, Exhibition Saloon n/a V.Samedova, the UAA, Baku, Azerbaijan 2010-2012 Exhibition devoted to the Day of Azerbaijanian Young, Exhibition Saloon n/a V. Samedova, the UAA, Baku, Azerbaijan 2010 Project “White & Black”, Museum Center, Baku, Azerbaijan 2009 Baku painting competition N3 “Germany the country of…”, Art Academy, Baku, Azerbaijan 2009 “Crossroads” -13th Sheki International Art Symposium, Sheki, Azerbaijan 2009 Exhibition of the young artists, Exhibition Saloon n/a V. Samedova, the UAA, Baku, Azerbaijan 2009 Exhibition devoted to the Day of Woman, Q Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan 2007 Photo exhibition of young photographers, Art Academy, Baku, Azerbaijan THE WORKS ARE KEPT: From Waste to Art Museum, Baku, Azerbaijan Shaanxi Provincial Art Museum, Xi'an, China