Beso Uznadze - Forgotten Vistas
10 - 18 June, 2017
Moving Gallery, Lisi Lake, Tbilisi, Georgia
Forgotten Vistas
Beso Uznadze's solo show
Project Artbeat is glad to present photographer Beso Uznadze’s first solo show in Tbilisi, Forgotten Vistas. The series were first presented at the START Art Fair, Saatchi Gallery London in 2016.
The series unites digitally modified photography and mixed media canvases inspired by a flower garden at night that the artist came across accidentally. Overlaid images with semi-transparent layers, dramatically modified color gradations, intensely close up compositions create a sensation of mysterious, yet a splendid garden that the audience only gets a fragmented look of. However, the enchanting beauty of the works is heavy with melancholia. There is a pertinent sensation of loss and lifelessness that infiltrate the images and add on to the drama.
The series, as majority of the artist’s art, is inspired by autobiographical events that find their resolution in his art. The artist channels his vulnerability to create complex imagery that plays on the notions of revealing and concealing and expresses the complexity of human emotional spectrum…the encounters that arouse contradictory feelings, collisions that deeply shake the soul and then memories that sediment as ephemeral visions…
Beso Uznadze: ‘The series depicts one object seen through different gazes… delighted or petrified, content or hurt… yet, these are solely flowers. The bird said it’s a carpet, the rich man said it’s gold, the ant said it’s home, the donkey said it’s delicious. I say these are flowers… extremely beautiful flowers.’
The series presented with an accompaniment of plant forest are dedicated to the memory of Uznadze’s mother.
The exhibition is curated by Ellen Kapanadze.
Beso Uznadze (B.1968) was trained as a documentary photographer first at the Sepia School of Photography, Tbilisi (1998 – 2000) and then at the London College of Printing (2003), where he obtained his post-graduate diploma in photojournalism. Uznadze’s photography draws inspiration from the artist’s daily surroundings and ordinary feelings that get depicted through artist’s signature style of digital manipulation and collaging. The artist recently expanded his practice that currently increasingly employs painting techniques.
Uznadze’s photography has been widely shown including Black&White Gallery, Tbilisi (2016), Galerie Hors-Champs, Paris (2015) Les Rencontres De La Photographie, Arles (2011), Pobeda Gallery, Moscow (2011), the National Portrait Gallery, London (2010; 2008; 2004); art fairs including Contemporary Istanbul (2016; 2014), Pulse, NY (2015) and a solo booth at the START Art Fair, Saatchi Gallery, London (2016). Select awards and scholarships include British Journal of Photography International Award, London (2008), Ian Parry Scholarship, London (2003), Metro imaging competition, London (2003).
The project is support by Tbilisi City Hall and Lisi Development