

Born in 1962 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Maksimov's early watercolor studies — depicting the Palace of the Shirvanshahs, the Caspian coast, and the parks of Baku — were recognized nationally and exhibited in Moscow, where he earned a laureate distinction in the Young Artist category. He received his formal training at the Azim Azimzade Baku Art College with a specialization in drawing and drafting, and continued at the Azerbaijan State University of Arts, completing a degree in industrial graphics.
Following his studies, he worked as an art editor at the Işıq publishing house and Ceyla magazine, simultaneously developing an independent practice in graphic design. A member of the Union of Designers, he subsequently committed fully to fine art, exhibiting across national and international venues throughout Europe and Moscow, where his works attracted sustained critical attention and were regularly acquired by private collectors.
Alongside his sustained practice, he has taught graphic design at the art college of the Azerbaijan Academy of Arts and serves as an expert on the national admission commission of the State Examination Center in the field of design. He conducts private master classes in his studio in Baku. His contribution to Azerbaijani fine art spans both the canvas and the classroom — shaping the visual sensibility of a new generation of artists and designers.
My practice is rooted in the visual language of Azerbaijan — the chromatic intensity of its carpet traditions, the light of the Caspian, the textural memory of ancient weaving. Line, plasticity of form, and the specific weight of national color are not decorative choices but structural ones. They are the grammar of my work.
My painting engages a lineage that runs from the structural chromaticism of Gauguin to the lyrical landscape of Sattar Bahlulzade — who gave Azerbaijani painting its sovereign pictorial voice — and to the spatial logic and tonal discipline of Velázquez. These are not sources of imitation but presences in dialogue.
The central discovery of my practice has been the "thread" — the fundamental unit of carpet weaving — transposed into oil and mixed media. Working with tapestry transformed the way I understand pictorial surface: specific brushstrokes, layered texture, and subtle gradation of color create the effect of woven structure, giving the canvas volume, breath, and what I call "shadow threads" — the rhythm between light and dark that animates the whole.
Azerbaijan State University of Arts
Azim Azimzade Baku Art College
Europe and Moscow
Moscow
Poland
Moscow
Freelance
Ceyla Magazine
Işıq Publishing House
Union of Designers of the USSR
State Examination Center
Western Caspian University
Art College, Azerbaijan Academy of Arts