Our Artists

Gama Melikova

Painter

Born in 1972 in Baku, Azerbaijan Gama (Hamida) Melikova graduated from the Azerbaijan State Medical University in Baku in 1997. In 2003, she left her medical career to devote herself to art. Gama is a talented self-taught artist whose passion for painting became her calling. Significantly, Gama has painted since childhood and always wanted to express herself through the language of art. Her tale

Diligence, an innate aesthetic sense, irrepressible imagination, self-belief and, most importantly, a love for life reinforce the artist’s innate talent, once again assuring that fate is at one’s mercy, and that faith, hope, and love guarantee success.

nt has often been called a godsend. Large surfaces always attracted the artist, and she created her first works using raw wooden boards. After that, Gama began to paint on the bark of trees, adapting her images to the wood’s natural structure. We could refer to this as her "organic period." Then she began to use the canvas as the basis for her works. During this period, her works resembled the paintings of old masters. They are both realistic and decorative, and their motifs are often inspired by the patterns of traditional Azerbaijani carpets. Gama invented her painting style out of her desire to reproduce and display the dreams and images of her childhood, namely the plant motifs and the mythical and mysterious animals that she saw as a baby on the carpets that hung on the walls instead of paintings, as is so common in Azerbaijani homes. She produces her still lives, portraits, and paintings in a more abstract style; they are always inspired by eastern topics and resemble Persian miniatures. However, we find the motifs of eastern decorative art within the western format of the still life. Her other works are more reminiscent of Roman wall paintings that are known to us through fragments and traces, which Gama reconstructs in very subtle and conscientious drawings created using her idiosyncratic technique. Gama is not afraid to experiment in her works. Thus, she created her own mixed technique: she mixes oil paints and acrylics with wood and with sea sand from the Caspian coast for her works. The artist’s experimental technique springs from her desire to constantly develop and bring diversity to her art, and to seek and find new forms and new means of expression. Gama Melikova created her own brand, called GamEl, and since 2014 she launched a limited series f silk and woven scarves for women decorated with the images of her original artworks. Since 2016 году the Azerbaijani brand ZEL HOME successfully presented the new collection of the dinnerware currently on sale in all ZEL HOME shops, produced basing the «Pomegranates Branch» original artwork by Gama Melikova (GamEl) from the Azerbaijan Carpets Motifs series. Since 2016 GamEl collaborates with the local (Azerbaijani) company Buta Promo specialized on production of the souvenirs basing the artworks and paintings collages by GamEl art. Since 2017 up to nowadays GamEl art cooperates with Xurcun company, the image for the gift boxes basing the original Pomegranate artwork by GamEl art was developed. In 2018 года the Robber Baron, Russia launched the production of the T-shirts with the applied images of the GamEl art artworks fragments. The works of Gama Melikova testify as much, if not more so, to her exploration of her origins and culture through visualization as to her need for artistic self-expression. Solo Exhibitions 2016 Azerbaijan Carpet Motifs, Library of Foreign Literature, Moscow, Russia 2015 Azerbaijan Carpet Motifs, Giz Galasy Art Gallery (QGallery), Baku, Azerbaijan 2013 MAR’S Gallery of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia 2009 Park Café, Baku, Azerbaijan 2007 Giz Galasy Art Gallery (QGallery), Baku, Azerbaijan Group Exhibitions 2015 Art Fair, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, France 2015 From Waste to Art International Festival, Baku, Azerbaijan 2014 From Waste to Art International Festival, Baku, Azerbaijan 2011 Maiden Tower International Art Festival, Baku, Azerbaijan

Gama Melikova's Paintings

In Gama Melikova’s works the East finds a harmonious unity with the West, and her art blurs real and imaginary borders.