A series of four large scale oil paintings, Agil Abdullayev’s park series explores themes of identity, gender, intimacy and vulnerability. Rooting Abdullayev’s practice in deeply personal experiences, these works engage with queer cruising culture, specifically within the conservative context of Azerbaijan, the artist’s native country. Confronting the expectations of masculinity and the social taboos surrounding homosexuality, the park represents simultaneously a space of expression and concealment. Subjects and locations are left anonymous as the painting invites viewers to project their own interpretations. Trees and plants are depicted in bold sweeping slabs of colour that create a surreal, dreamlike space. Although the visual  environment is non-specific and abstracted, the titles of the works denote the exact time and location of each painting. Whilst these spaces might not be immediately familiar to the viewer, for the artist they represent an awakening - memories of a transformative period in his life where the park altered from a space of innocence to one of risk, danger, desire, possibility, and liberation. 

Agil Abdullayev (b. 1992) is an interdisciplinary artist working across film, photography, and painting. Their practice investigates shifting notions of identity, trauma, vulnerability, and escapism as they move through public and private memory. Often semi-biographical, Abdullayev’s films draw on childhood experiences and personal queer archives, expanding into work shaped by diaries, essays, and close collaboration with local communities. Through alter-egos, intimacy, self-reflection, and emotional extremities, they construct spaces of hyperpossibility where representations can be disrupted, re-articulated, and reinvented. Prizes include: second prize, Fluxus Museum Prize for Experimental Video (2025), the Golden Cube Award at Kassel Dokfest (2024), Seed Award from the Prince Claus Foundation (2022), Artlink Prize, SudKultur Fond 2022. Exhibitions and presentations include: MoMA Tbilisi; Istanbul Contemporary Istanbul; Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; Peabody Essex Museum, Salem; Tate, London; Liverpool Biennial; South London Gallery; and Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong. Residencies: Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, Meet Factory, Cittadellarte, Goethe Institute, and Artlinks CEC.