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Image: The Wave. Mosque Prayer carpet. Faig Ahmed. 2006. Courtesy of the artist.

Faig Ahmed is an internationally acclaimed artist from Baku, Azerbaijan, who represented his country at the Venice Biennal in 2007. Since then, Faig's works have been well represented in museum collections across the world, including the Art Institute of Chicago, RISD Museum of Art, Chrysler Museum of Art, Brooks Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Victoria in Australia, The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Norway, Istanbul’s Modern, London’s V&A, and others.

Most recently, Ahmed was exhibited in a solo booth at the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) Art Show, 2022.

Image: Dragons of Karabakh. Faig Ahmed. 2021. Handmade wool carpet. Courtesy of the artist.

Ahmed’s striking works reimagine traditional decorative craft, translating the visual language of carpets into contemporary sculptures.

Image: Step by Step. Faig Ahmed. 2016. Handmade woollen carpet. Courtesy of the artist.

His unexpected marriage of the traditional and the hyper-contemporary involves sketching his works digitally— often distorting them by melting the colours or playing with pixilation —before employing a range of intricate, traditional techniques to realise his patterns.  

Image: Faig Ahmed at the ADAA Art Show, 2022