MILADO ART GALLERY: When you were a child, who did you dream of becoming? When did you realise you wanted to be an artist?
SHAHNAZ AGHAYEVA: When you ask a child who they want to be, you shouldn’t expect a rational answer. I wanted to travel the world. My mother always said that to travel, you have to earn money, but when you’re earning money, you have no time to travel. Yet it somehow worked out that I became an artist and managed to combine my work with traveling. However, the whole idea of being a “tourist” doesn’t resonate with me. If I want to see a country, I set myself the goal of doing a project or an exhibition there, both to show my work and to see the place through that experience.
MILADO ART GALLERY: Why is it wonderful being an artist?
SHAHNAZ AGHAYEVA: When I studied at the Academy, I once asked my professor: “Who is an artist?” She replied: “An artist is someone who never erases the child within themselves for their entire life.” If you observe children, they learn the world through themselves - touching their bodies, staring at themselves in the mirror for hours. Then we forget this and start learning about ourselves through others, imitating our surroundings, squeezing ourselves into boxes, and distancing ourselves from nature. An artist needs to keep evolving, constantly observing and working on themselves.
Shahnaz in her studio in Bodrum, Turkey, 2025.
MILADO ART GALLERY: When did you first begin consciously applying the practice of self-observation and reflection?
SHAHNAZ AGHAYEVA: Since childhood, from around five or six years old. I loved observing. I would constantly watch myself from outside, as though stepping out of my body and looking at myself and the situation from a distance. It kept me from losing my mind as a child. Let me explain, I grew up in a very conservative family, and my father was strongly against art and particularly women in art. He constantly humiliated me for it; if he saw my drawings, he would tear them apart and beat me.
This practice of observing myself from the outside helped me understand what was happening and kept me from blaming anyone. If you don’t work through your trauma, you won’t know why you needed that experience at the time, and you can remain stuck in it for life.
MILADO ART GALLERY: Why did you decide to enter the Azerbaijan State Academy of Fine Arts?
SHAHNAZ AGHAYEVA: Honestly, I had no idea who artists were, how they earned a living, how they lived. Then I began visiting libraries and second-hand bookstores, reading Russian books about artists’ lives. I became so absorbed that I didn’t want to apply anywhere else. I hated school; it was hell for me; all I wanted was to become an artist.
Then the Azerbaijan State Art Academy opened. I went there and saw students in tattered clothes sitting on the floor, drawing. It inspired me so much that I said, “I’m going to study here.” I finished college as an economist and entered the Academy with top grades.
MILADO ART GALLERY: What inspired you there? What was difficult?
SHAHNAZ AGHAYEVA: My time at the Academy was very difficult. There were many talented artists, but very few good professors. During my studies, I realised I wanted to become a printmaker. I remember walking into the printmaking workshop, seeing the presses, matrices, paper, and ink everywhere. It absorbed me completely. When I tried to transfer to printmaking, they refused, saying I was a designer, not a printmaker. In the end, I learned by standing in the doorway, even how to clean metals, finding materials and chemicals through the students who worked there.
Shahnaz Aghayeva, Secret Meetings, 2025 (vertical and horizontal), Aluminium etching.
MILADO ART GALLERY: What did you do after you received the diploma from the Azerbaijan State Art Academy?
SHAHNAZ AGHAYEVA: After completing my bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Azerbaijan State Art Academy, I founded a free art school for children, where I selected students based on their genuine passion rather than their parents’ ambitions. The school ran for four years, and I remain in touch with many of my students.
Building an artistic career in Baku, however, was extremely challenging. Every open call began with the same questions: “Who is your uncle? What family are you from? Who in your family is an artist?” Without connections, doors stayed closed. A turning point came in 2017, when I was accepted into the YARAT Contemporary Art Space residency and finally gained access to a proper studio. Until then, my works were too large even for my home, and after my children fell asleep, I would move all the furniture to unroll paper or canvas.
During this period, I created monumental etchings that could not be printed anywhere in Baku, and my professors suggested that I go to Georgia. There, I met Vakhtang Megrelishvili, Professor of Graphics at the Georgian Academy of Art. Initially, he refused to help, asking why he should invest his time in me. I told him, “If I don’t make this print, I will die.” He agreed, and I went on to print my works and assist other artists in the studio.
MILADO ART GALLERY: Why did you decide to move from Baku to Bodrum? And what is, for you, the main difference between Azerbaijan and Turkey?
SHAHNAZ AGHAYEVA: One day, my studio was taken away from me, and I decided I’d had enough. I simply wanted to work without anyone interfering.
After moving to Turkey, I noticed differences in how Azerbaijanis and Turks view life. Turks are not nearly as pessimistic. In Azerbaijan, any problem becomes a problem for all humanity. Turks take life and problems much more lightly. They enjoy life; they savor it.
Shahnaz in her studio in Bodrum, Turkey, 2025.
MILADO ART GALLERY: You work across many media, including performance, embroidery, pastel, oil, and watercolor. How do you choose the material for each piece?
SHAHNAZ AGHAYEVA: Every material has its own character, mood, its own reaction to the moment, and to how you feel. I never think ahead about which material I’ll use. When an idea comes up, the material comes with it.
Shahnaz Aghayeva, performance "My Mother is the Mother in Me", Baku, 2019. Image Courtesy: YARAT Contemporary Art Space.
MILADO ART GALLERY: The female figure plays a central role in your practice. What draws you to portray predominantly female characters?
SHAHNAZ AGHAYEVA: I grew up surrounded by women. Until I was eleven, before I learned what sex was, I didn’t understand why men were needed or why they even came home. My mother did everything herself. My dad left in the morning, returned in the evening, and scolded us. Who was he? What was he for?
MILADO ART GALLERY: What are the roles of a contemporary woman you depict in your work?
SHAHNAZ AGHAYEVA: There are countless functions and roles women have been taking on. A woman gives birth, raises children, guides, befriends, works, and earns money; society places enormous responsibility on her shoulders.
MILADO ART GALLERY: You once said that a woman is “the bearer of culture, tradition, fear, hope, and resilience.” Why is it important to view the role of women through an intergenerational perspective?
SHAHNAZ AGHAYEVA: Atatürk said that if you want to change society’s mindset, you must start with the grandmother - the mother’s mother. In a mother’s subconscious lies the experience of her mother, and it all passes on to you. A woman shapes society - not the one just born, but the one born three generations ago. They pass on not only their experience, but the experience of generations. Yet the saddest thing is that neither my mother nor her mother ever asked themselves whether this information was necessary for me, for my life. I truly believe that Information handed down from generation to generation without contextualization is a profound obstacle to the formation of a woman’s identity.
MILADO ART GALLERY: What aspects of women’s experience do you explore in your work? What is your goal in addressing these themes?
SHAHNAZ AGHAYEVA: The women in my work still think with a matriarchal mindset: they believe everything depends on them, because they’ve never seen happiness any other way. They make their children feel responsible for everything they and their mothers and grandmothers, and the entire family line have lived through. This is wrong. It’s a kind of victim syndrome that I try to portray with irony.
My art is for women in the present day so that future generations won’t be preoccupied with banal problems, the bonds of convention and tradition, all of which hold us back. I want all that to end with me, with my work.
Shahnaz Aghayeva, Everyone has their own routine, 2025.
MILADO ART GALLERY: What do the full-figured, monumental, and contrasting forms of the female body in your works symbolize?
SHAHNAZ AGHAYEVA: It’s how a child sees a woman’s body - from below: a large bottom, small shoulders, and small head. When I carry this into art, I elevate women. It also reflects love for my ancestors and respect for women in general.
MILADO ART GALLERY: In your recent series, there’s often a contrast between very fine, sharp details: heels, hairstyle, facial features, and curvaceous, full-bodied forms. What do these details symbolize?
SHAHNAZ AGHAYEVA: Details are the most memorable element of any artwork. I use allegory (turning abstract concepts into physical objects) in my paintings.
High heels, for example, are the most uncomfortable shoes. Carrying a large mass (the voluminous female body) on thin legs, on red heels, is extremely difficult. Red heels symbolise the laws of the society we live in. We must be beautiful, feminine; we must be mothers, aunts, daughters. Everything must be flawless so no one can fault us. Red shoes signify our duty toward society, our families, and our children.
Shahnaz Aghayeva, Red Heels series, 2025.
Pulled-back hair symbolises a lack of time to care for oneself. Women have so much to do that they tie their hair just to keep it out of the way. To compensate, my female characters highlight their lips with red lipstick and accentuate their eyes. They appear to embrace this burden, yet it is nothing more than self-deception – an ephemeral beauty that inevitably slips away. For years, I watched my mother keep lipsticks and expensive perfumes she never used, only for them to expire unused.
Orange hair reminds me of my country: Azerbaijan is called the land of fire, and among indigenous Azerbaijanis, orange hair, blue eyes, and fair skin were once common.
Shahnaz Aghayeva, Nostalgia for myself, 2025.
I also always accentuate nipples, as they, too, have their philosophy: women feel and perceive the world through them first; they become a kind of “second pair of eyes.”
MILADO ART GALLERY: How do you approach composition and perspective?
SHAHNAZ AGHAYEVA: I love Asian philosophy about emptiness and fullness. It teaches that we learn to speak so that later we can be silent. My language is visual - I don’t chat endlessly; I express essence through precise forms or words. I believe that if you want to be heard, you must speak quietly, not scream in agony.
MILADO ART GALLERY: In your works, the body language often reveals a woman’s story - her burdens and fears or her playfulness and freedom. How do you use body language in your work?
SHAHNAZ AGHAYEVA: The women in my work are always in motion. A woman cannot simply sit, rest, lie down, or be still. Even when she rests physically, her mind keeps working. A woman is the largest part of nature and the universe -and if the universe rests for even a minute, chaos begins.
MILADO ART GALLERY: What does the constrained, closed pose in your early works symbolize?
SHAHNAZ AGHAYEVA: It’s the embryo position - a universal posture of protection. The female figure sees no difference between good and bad and shields herself from everything. It reflected my state after my divorce. People I loved and admired turned away from me. But new people, whom I had just met, turned toward me: a certain cyclical pattern. I didn’t know who was good or bad, so I tried to protect myself from any disappointment.
MILADO ART GALLERY: Let’s talk about your different series, starting with Lilith and Eve. What inspired you to create a series rooted in religious and mythological imagery?
SHAHNAZ AGHAYEVA: I am against all religions; most of them are tied to a patriarchal system. In a matriarchal system, they didn’t exist as women were deeply connected to the wild, to nature. You’ve probably read “Women Who Run with the Wolves,” written by Clarissa Pinkola Estés.
The Lilith and Eve series challenges the general perception of the Lilith and Eve characters. I believe it was Lilith, not the serpent, who urged Eve to eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. But my Eve doesn’t eat the apple right away; she slowly begins peeling it, observing (as depicted in Sweet or Sour, 2025). What I am trying to say is that inherited knowledge should not be passed down in its raw, uninterrogated form. One must unfold it, reaching a fundamental truth, and reassess its relevance before carrying it into the future.
Shahnaz Aghayeva, Lilith and Eve, 2025; Sweet or Sour, 2025.
MILADO ART GALLERY: In the X-istance series, how does the dynamic within the community of women unfold?
SHAHNAZ AGHAYEVA: Sadly, I rarely see women support women in society. It is a deeply upsetting subject for me. This series is about women who cannot coexist in a collective. For instance, in Internal Disagreements (2025), one group wants to move forward, while the other stops them: “Maybe we shouldn’t, maybe they’re lying.” Instead of uniting their strength to make the world better, women pull each other in different directions.
Shahnaz Aghayeva, Internal Disagreements, 2025.
MILADO ART GALLERY: In Personal Search (2022) and Smoke Break (2025), you combine textile/paper and embroidery. How did you begin working with embroidery? And what are these works about? Can the thread be considered both a material and a symbol connecting generations?
SHAHNAZ AGHAYEVA: In my family, embroidery has been passed down through generations. My grandmother embroidered, and my mother too. One day, I simply took a soft needle and started sewing.
When creating Personal Search (2022), I was looking for like-minded women who shared my views on life. The female characters in the work are seeking connection. They carry buckets of water, and this water holds information about all of us, linking them to one another and to society.
Shahnaz Aghayeva, Personal search, 2022.
Smoke Break (2025) is about the women I grew up around. They swept the streets when I left for school, and when I returned, they would chat during their short break. All so beautiful, with red lipstick, even though their work seemed unrelated to beauty. What struck me was that men stood nearby, hands in pockets, simply watching, never offering help, and this was seen as normal.
Shahnaz Aghayeva, Smoke Break, 2025.
MILADO ART GALLERY: Could you walk us through your aluminium etching process? What are the key steps involved in the process?
SHAHNAZ AGHAYEVA: For a long time after graduating, I didn’t make prints because oxidation is an extremely complex and hazardous process. Some of my professors even lost their teeth and hair due to the poor ventilation in the studios. When I travelled to Georgia to the studio of Vakhtang Megrelishvili, I was introduced to salt-based aluminium etching, a technique that is completely harmless. I learned it and became completely obsessed with printmaking.
Prinstfestival LifeNStile, Georgia, 2018. Image Courtesy: Shahnaz Aghayeva.
Also, I love aluminium etching because I can cut any shape, something impossible with zinc or copper. First, I create a small sketch, then work on the metal. Cutting occurs after the work is completed. Then the plate is ready for printing.
MILADO ART GALLERY: Let’s talk about your creative process in general. How do you begin a new work? Do you make sketches, take photos, or work intuitively?
SHAHNAZ AGHAYEVA: I have many sketchbooks, always small enough to fit in my pocket or bag. Agatha Christie once said that she wrote all her best murder mysteries while washing dishes; she hated washing dishes. I’m the same: I draw while cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, talking, drinking something. I draw on the bus, on airplanes - wherever I am and whatever I do.
MILADO ART GALLERY: Do you listen to music while you draw?
SHAHNAZ AGHAYEVA: No, I can’t. When I hear music, I instinctively start moving to its rhythm. [laughing]
MILADO ART GALLERY: How do you feel about criticism of your work?
SHAHNAZ AGHAYEVA: Any opinion is interesting to me, except praise. I don’t work to be rewarded. I need to keep working on myself; that’s my biggest praise.
MILADO ART GALLERY: What inspires you outside of visual art - literature, film, music?
SHAHNAZ AGHAYEVA: Conversations with intellectual people inspire me immensely. Also, I love exploring different cultures and finding connections between them.
Furthermore, I enjoy studying different aspects of the human being. In the Academy, during anatomy class, we were once taken to the medical university for a session in the morgue. I loved it so much that I went to our dean and asked for official permission to visit the morgue regularly. I went there for a year every other day.
Now I’m interested in everything related to human psychology. So, the books I read are mostly about that. And I adore fairy tales. On my last trip to Azerbaijan, I bought the original edition of Azerbaijani folk tales - there is so much to learn from them…
MILADO ART GALLERY: Which artists inspire you, and what aspects of their work resonate with you?
SHAHNAZ AGHAYEVA: Firstly, Kaarina Kaikkonen - an incredible artist. She creates installations from men’s shirts, recalling how her father took her fishing. I always say I hope one day to exhibit alongside her.
Kaarina Kaikkonen, The Blue Route, 2013. Image Courtesy: Fabrica Gallery, Brighton.
I also love Käthe Kollwitz - an extraordinary printmaker who lived during World War II and lost two sons. She encouraged me to work on printmaking without making sketches. Looking at her work, I understood that you can take hard material (metal) and work with it, directly transmitting the energy in its raw, immediate form without mediation.
Käthe Kollwitz, Woman and Child. Image Courtesy: Das Käthe Kollwitz-Werk, 1925.
MILADO ART GALLERY: What remarkable artists to surround yourself with. Thank you, Shahnaz, for this deeply insightful conversation.
