Timur Ernst Akhmedov's (b. 1968, Tashkent, Uzbekistan) newseries of artworks are complex compositions with symbolic, yet almost fairy-tale like content that stir emotions, mystery and intrigue. He often displays a fascinating mix of his own dreams – he depicts the world and people in a surreal, dream-like way, often representing himself and others as majestic characters within a story.

The artist is known for his colour and its development plays the principal role in his pictures. He creates rich in hues colour compositions where the combination of Asian turquoise, warm ochre and vibrant reds, creates a strange sense of silence, almost as if one were watching a silent movie, about to spring to action. The surreal is never far from the heart of Akhmedov’s narrative. Usually there are one or two figures in a composition, "suspended" in abstract-reality – where there is no action, but where the action is only suggested by an expressive posture or gesture. The artist makes his heroes live in a set he has invented and brought in accord with the invented nature of the character. His paintings have also a sensualovertone and display a combination of abstractions and objects, nervous pulse and tranquility, romanticism and the grotesque.

The Tashkent artist came into prominence in the 1990s, having received the Grand Prix at the regional biennial "Asia Art". Critics then started talking about the "trans avant garde" quality of his works, which some saw as the local version of postmodernism.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s during the "Perestroika" (“Restructuring”) era, in the spirit of the times, he was a player, along with his young contemporaries, on the experimental site at Ilkhom Theater. Ilkhom, established in 1976 in Tashkent, was the first independent theatre in the Soviet Union: it is self-supporting to this day.

True to his chosen path, Akhmedov was furiously trying various techniques, on the look out for a way in the territory of radical art practice. Separating from the context, he is still very independently developing and following his own path. But what is even more important is that the young artist realized his vocation early: for him, the language of self- expression was painting. His talent is an amazing ability to convey emotions, experiences, reflections and all the different shades of feelings, through the beauty of colour.

At first glance, it seems that the sense of colour and colour harmonies is just a natural gift, which allows him to easily and freely throw on his canvas colouristic exercises. But actually, he is an artist of constant self-reflection and internal doubts and limitations.

For ten years (1998-2008) he fell out of the local art space, so to say, during which period he was actively cooperating with galleries in the UK, Spain and Russia: Gallery 28, Filipp Gallery, Peace & Colour, Galina Maxwell, Hay Hill, Gallery Master and many others. Since 2013, he has developed a fruitful cooperation with Andakulova Gallery, Dubai, which successfully represents his art.

This exhibition presents new works by Akhmedov, created in recent years. They reflect yet another new search and journey for him. Many paintings, in principle sans name or untitled, give the viewer the opportunity to freely understand the picturesque text. They generate associations and have hidden symbolisms.

For example, in the pictures of Days of Apples, (2014), Untitled (2016) or in Untitled, (2017), where the girl thinks, looking at the sculpture of a young man, it is left to the viewer to understand the thought. Music, like a mysterious light, seems to be pouring into the painting Northern Song (2013). Its colour is reminiscent of the radiance of ancient smalt or precious stones.The poetry of the picture lies in the intertwining and spreading of colour chords, always gentle and harmonious. The colour palette of this artist is not a static spot: it pulsates and moves, as if it gives birth to something new, like, for example, in the film "A Miracle" (2016).

In some paintings done in 2017, the "Untitled" trope is noticeable, as Akhmedov balances, floating on the canvases figuratively and in abstract, to none giving a preference. In the mysterious world of these paintings, where fine figures of secretive strangers are seen from within the web of thin threads and mosaic colours, there are no questions raised of high or low themes. And that is the beauty and equality of coloured dreams - of both the rich and the poor, the mighty and powerless, held together in common brotherhood by the seductive grip of colouristic fantasies.

Akhmedov writes large canvases - his paintings are more complex in colouring. To keep fidelity to the canvas, to express oneself in the traditional language of the picture, to prefer colours, intimate revelations of painting to digital experiments, video and photos - this in our time is not conservatism, but the master's own position of painting, call it avant garde, cutting edge or what you will.

Akhmedov has achieved national and international recognition. His artworks are highly sought after and grace private collections of serious art collectors and investors globally. His famous collectors include musician Seal, Dr. M.W.J. Smurfit and His Serene Highness Prince Albert of Monaco.