Aidan Salakhova, is an Azerbaijani and Russian artist born in 1964. Daughter of the Azeri-Russian Vice President of the Russian Academy of Arts, Tahir Salakhova, is an internationally acclaimed artist – with a career extending over twenty years. Graduating in 1987 from the Moscow State Surikov Institute of Fine Arts, where since 2002 she has been a professor. Salakhova became an Academician of the Russian Academy of Fine Arts in 2007. In 1992 Salakhova founded the Aidan Gallery in Moscow, cementing her influence on the development of contemporary art in post Soviet Russia. Salakhova’s work revolves around confronting portrayals of veiled female figures which reveal contradictions of the patriarchal order. Aidan urges the viewer to unearth societal enigmas; from the role of women to patriarchal neuroses which have lingered for centuries. The veil, which transcends different cultures and religions since antiquity, is a pivotal metaphor in Salakhova’s oeuvre. Salakhova’s own artworks feature prominently in many private and state collections including; the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation, Francois Pinault Foundation, Teutloff Museum and the Boghossian Foundation and also in the private collections of I. Khalilov, P-K. Broshe, T. Novikov, V. Nekrasov, and V. Bondarenko amongst others. Since 1990 Salakhova has held over 30 solo shows in Moscow, St. Petersburg, New York, Berlin, Paris and Baku. In 1990 her work was part of the Soviet pavilion at the 44th Venice Biennale and in 2011 she worked on the 54th Venice Biennale’s Azeri pavilion.