“Egocentric” Print

BIO Artist Ellada Ismail was born and is currently based in Azerbaijan, Baku. Ellada is a professionally trained artist, she graduated her BA and MA from State Art Academy of Azerbaijan. For over 10 years Ellada has been exhibiting her artwork nationally and internationally, with the most significant exhibitions being her Solo Exhibition in White Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan in 2017 and a Solo Exhibition, State Art Museum, Baku, Azerbaijan in 2016. Her most significant group shows are: Carrousel gallery, Paris, France and and Artfair in the World Centre, Dubai, UAE. She also participated in several international competitions, winning a Silver in both International Art Competition in Modern Art Center, Turkey and International Art Competition in Dolmabahce Palace, Turkey. Ellada's work in widely collected with several prominent collections in the UAE, Turkey, Azerbaijan and USA. Artist Statement I have grown up in Azerbaijan, a country with bright colours and rich yet dominating culture. At the same time, I come from a large family, where there isn't much space for an individual and social bonds are overwhelming. For me, however, since young age, my surroundings have always been uninteresting, I was seeking for loneliness and isolation trying to create emptiness that would allow me to construct my own world, my own visual narrative, my own aesthetic. I started painting since I was a little girl and always found an asylum in the imaginary worlds that I was crafting: unlike real life, everything on the sheet was as I want to. I have always remembered myself as an artist as my creations served not only as visual expression, but an alternative reality that I could always escape to, my habitat. Despite being a professionally trained artist, I consciously remain naive in my artistic language. It is crucial for me to keep a trace with my own inner child and how I have always been perceiving and re-imagining reality. When I am thinking of a new plot for my painting, it always starts with a memory of something I have seen in reality, but that didn't quite "fit" with how I would like it to be. I interweave myths, personal stories and childhood memories. I am constantly in search of details, color, images, and composition for my paintings.