Mamuka Japharidze - Works from Archive

18 October - 8 December, 2019

Gallery Artbeat, 14 Pavle Ingorokva  str., Tbilisi, Georgia

Gallery Artbeat cordially invites you to the opening of a multi-media Georgian artist Mamuka Japharidze’s solo exhibition, “Works from Archive”.

The exhibition is an attempt to present the archival fragments from the oeuvre of the artist, spanning from the 1990’s till present. The show will feature Japharidze's personal archive, which will contain artist's personal records, visual and textual documentation of art events from 80’s and 90’s Georgia. Each visual material shown at the exhibition becomes an artifact that is converted into a communication form and is in a dialogue with a viewer, transcending different historical periods and contexts, which were crucial in the development of Georgian contemporary art scene.

The exhibition combines several fields that Japharidze works in: Mythological themes, works which are based on the principle of linguistic gameplay, visual images translated into kitsch form that show a consumerist attitude towards art and profane processes transformed as a poetic act and their visual manifestation.

Mamuka Japharidze (born in 1962, in Tbilisi) lives and works in Tbilisi and the UK. The medium of his works changes according to the context and environment and includes: happenings, collections of objects and images, video projections, photography, linguistic games, drawings, sound design, prints, photo archives collected over a long period of time.

In 1992, artist created conceptual gallery called “Ramsesmzera”, involving several projects where other artists participated.

At the 48th Venice Biennale, with Georgi Alexi-Meshkishvili Japharidze represented Georgia, curated by Irena Popiashvili. In the same year a video projection, “Eye Trees” was presented in Atlanta. The artist’s works were exhibited at Georgian National Museum several times, including Reframing the 80’s in 2012 and Re: Museum in 2014. With the works by other Georgian artists, Mamuka Japharidze’s installation was featured at the exhibition Beyond Credit at Art in General, in New-York.

Photos by Angus Leadley Brown