Tbilisi Art Fair
September, 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 (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 Center of Contemporary Art-Tbilisi. Since then, the artist has been actively exhibiting in Georgia and abroad, including Brussels, Prague, Zurich, Dusseldorf, Naples, Baku...
Gvantsa is the co-founder of the contemporary art galleries in Tbilisi, Patara Gallery and The Why Not Gallery. In 2021 Gvantsa was awarded with Prince Claus Foundation Seed Awards for young artists and art practitioners. 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 (not-taken), and in 2017 the artist received the Tsinandali Award in Visual Arts. Gvantsa was the founder of the first Georgian online magazine Gar-Gar magazine on art and fashion (2013-18).
Her creative practices, both artistic and curatorial, reflect on the artist's immediate environment, personal experiences and socio-political realities. The artist works in a variety of materials and techniques, often inspired by Georgian cultural heritage, and then interpreted in a completely different way. Recently, the artist has been actively working around Georgian craft traditions, such as mosaics, tapestries, as a kind of therapy to reflect on her own experiences and collective memories of her generation.
Malkhaz Gorgadze was born in 1941, Tbilisi to the family of artists Bidzina and Elene Gorgadze. After graduating from the Academy of Arts in 1965, a ceramicist by profession, Malkhaz Gorgadze, soon got involved in the city redevelopment projects. In different districts of Tbilisi, many mosaic or relief panoramas, familiar to everyone, were created by Malkhaz Gorgadze. However, few know that throughout his artistic career, he also created paintings and still actively continues to paint.
The following works are from the 1970s to the present day. Paintings and tapestries woven according to the artist’s sketches. Monumental and mesmerising works that have been created over the 50 years are a celebration of exquisite shapes and colour schemes. These paintings, created with excellent knowledge of academic drawing, follow a single storyline – of idyllic, tropical landscapes and people lost in them; a sea of metaphors and allego- ries, philosophical discourses and existential questions, uncommon readings of biblical parables, references to the masters of art and a mysterious charm that makes an indelible impression on the viewer.
The works radiate with powerful, inexhaustible, energy, a visual demonstration of Joie de vivre, of the spirit of his generation – that can be called the golden generation of the Soviet Georgia.
Malkhaz Gorgadze works in Tbilisi, Georgia