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Drawing Room 2022

 

For the fairs '22 edition, we are presenting amazing cast of young Georgian artists: Shalva Nikvashvili, Gvantsa Jishkariani, Mariam Tevzadze, Tamar Bochorishvili and Lola, These artists, working in various mediums and having absolutely different styles, approaches, techniques and inspirations, muse on a variety of themes including Georgian cultural traditions, personal mythologies, Science, Feminism or complete ephemeral sensations...

 

As a gallery, we aim to represent marginalised voices and give them the deserved exposure, and the artists selected are not an exclusion.  While Shalva is underrepresented on the Georgian scene, he has gained acknowledgement abroad, Gvantsa Jihkariani is one of the stars of Georgian contemporary art, working in various mediums and techniques, showing actively both in Georgia and abroad, Tamar is known for her tender and striking drawings and collages, Mariam and Lola are the true hidden gems of the Georgian art scene, whose art is yet to be first gifted to the wider audience of art.

Gvantsa Jishkariani (b.1991) is a multimedia artist working in a range of media including painting, photography and sculpture. Dedicated to experimentation, the artist likes to explore traditional craft – investigate her own associations, research into the tradition and then employ the knowledge to create her art. Her works often deal with her personal emotions and experiences as well as reflect socio-political conditions of present-day Georgia. The artist often employs humour to address these deeply personal and highly relevant subjects.

Gvantsa Jishkariani (d. 1991) graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of the Tbilisi State Academy of the Fine Arts, then completed an informal master's program at the Centre of Contemporary Art-Tbilisi. Since then, the artist has been actively exhibiting in Georgia and abroad, including Brussels, Prague, Zurich, Dusseldorf, Naples and Baku.

 

Gvantsa is the co-founder of the contemporary art galleries in Tbilisi, Patara Gallery and The Why Not Gallery. In 2021 Gvantsa received Prince Claus Foundation Seed Awards. In 2020 she was selected for the Forbes 30 under 30 list, Between 2017 and 2019, Gvantsa was the curator of the Tbilisi Photo Festival Night of Photography. In 2019 she won the NARS Foundation Studio Grant, New York and in 2017 the artist received the Tsinandali Award in Visual Arts. Gvantsa was the founder of the first Georgian online magazine Gargar magazine on art and fashion (2013-18).

Shalva Nikvashvili (born in 1990 in Sighnaghi) is a multimedia artist who mainly works around the notions of identity and memory, investigating the boundaries of beauty and manipulation. He studied at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, Faculty of Design, and then went on to study Sculpture at the Royal Academy of Arts in Antwerp. Shalva's works have been exhibited at various European galleries and museums, including the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Barbara Thumm Gallery, Berlin. His work has been covered in leading art publications such as ID magazine, Vice, Metal Magazine and others. In 2021 Shalva worked with Kirill Serebrennikov on the opera ‘Nos’ by D.Shostakovich, Bayerische Staatsoper, and created masks for the performance. Shalva Nikvashvili currently lives and works in Belgium.

Tamar Bochorishvili’s art is always on the verge between the real and the absurd, the beautiful and the horrible. These mutually exclusive existences can be considered Tamar's signature style. She works mainly in collage and assemblage, be it small polymer clay objects or pencil and watercolour drawings. Her works, the same time grotesque and humorous often deal with rather pressing and critical topics such as gender issues in the patriarchal society.

Young artist with a pseudonym Lola (b.2001, Tbilisi) enrolled at the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs, faculty of Audio-Visual and Media Art, but she dropped out after completing only a year. From 2018, the artist started actively experimenting with drawing and sharing the results online. Soon she caught the attention of the art world and was first included at the group show CANILEAVENOW at Maudi, Tbilisi. 

 

A sea of references can be read in Lola’s signature works and as she herself describes it ‘inspiration is mediaeval illustrations, different cultures, scientific symbolism, embryology, architecture, music ... Without carefully studying them, I transform and mix everything I have seen and heard. I find so many answers by observing the resulting works.’ 

Mariam Tevzadze (b.1996, Tbilisi, Georgia) is a young artist who studied at the Tbilisi State Academy of Fine Arts, faculty of Graphic Design. Since graduating, Mariam has worked in the field and is currently an art director at the Tbilisi-based creative agency Brid. For Mariam, having a career in graphic design was a conscious decision, as a way of liberating her creative process from the outside pressures. However, outside her professional day job, Mariam devotedly creates art. Meticulously  drawn black&white charcoal pieces have a narrative flow, usually depicting a young woman, who resembles the artist a lot. 

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