DUBAI.- Cuadro Gallery announces the opening of "Out Of Body," the first ever exhibition in the Middle East by celebrated artist Aidan Salakhova. Her latest works are brilliantly provocative, yet subtle. She often employs monotone or gold backgrounds that reference medieval paintings, illuminated manuscripts, and early mosaics. Highlights from the exhibition include contrasting white marble and polished granite sculptures weighing close to a metric ton. Some of these intricate works took up to three years to produce on site in Carrara, Italy.

The exhibition of 25 artworks is a testament to the artist’s range, with Salakhova executing her sculptures as skilfully as her drawings and paintings. Her work combines Islamic with Western feminist influences, mirroring her Azerbaijani background and Eastern European upbringing.

She examines the feminine identity in an Islamic context, with missing elements carrying as much weight as those that are visualized. Feminine figures are delicately portrayed, with the male presence noticeably absent. At times, the female form is alluded to, but is seen only in the folds of drapery, rather than in a traditional figurative manifestation.

Her compositions are somber, as they carry the quiet strength of their subjects. Highly symbolic, Aidan’s work plays on the capability of representative imagery to present a multitude of meanings, primary among which is women’s position within established social conventions.

Cuadro Gallery Director Bashar Al Shroogi states, "Gender issues, particularly from an Islamic perspective, are common in art from the Islamic world. And yet, the mastery with which Aidan presents this theme so subtly and without fanfare, is powerful. This is an exhibition that inspires awe, and I cannot wait to see the audience’s reaction."

Aidan Salakhova, born in Moscow in 1964 of Azerbajani parents, is a Russian painter, sculptor, civic leader, teacher, and acting member of the Russian Academy of Art since 2007. She graduated from Suikov Art Institute in 1987 and began teaching at the institute in 2000. Salakhova has had numerous significant exhibitions throughout her career, notably twice at the Azerbaijani Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Aidan Salakhova was nominated for the prestigious 2013 Kandinsky Prize in Moscow. Aidan’s artworks are in state collections, including the State Tretyakov Gallery, and the Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art; as well as in private collections, including the Ekaterina Foundation (Moscow), I. Khalilova, P. Brochet, T. Novikov, and V. Nekrasov. Aidan is represented by XL Gallery (Moscow), and Cuadro Gallery (Dubai).