Butunay Hagverdiyev mainly works in painting and sculpture, and since 2009 he is actively engaged in video art, shooting mostly short animated films. In his video works, he experiments with different techniques while creating a moving sculpture using time-lapse photography and arrangement. Born in Baku, he studied in the painting faculty at the Azim Azimzade Art College before continuing his fine art education in Moscow at the British Higher School of Art and Design. However, as a teenager he was already an accomplished painter, having worked with a group of artists on the painting and restoration of frescoes in an orthodox church from 2003-2008, in Baku. He has participated in a number of significant group exhibitions in Baku and abroad in Russia, France, and Italy. In 2013, his work was featured in the national pavilion of Azerbaijan at the 55th Venice Biennale in Italy and in 2015 his wooden sculptures of Azerbaijani carpet motifs were shown in the exhibition Azerbaijani Carpets in Art in the Cannes Festival Palace in France.
