TBILISI ART FAIR 2018

Presented artists: Gvantsa Jishkariani, Avto Meskhi, David Meskhi, Gio Sumbadze and Beso Uznadze

Gvantsa Jishkariani (B. 1991, Rustavi, Georgia).

After studying at Tbilisi State Academy of Art (BA in Architecture), she gained an Informal MA in Inclusive Mediation at Center of Contemporary Art – Tbilisi. In 2014 she, with ten other female artists founded art group "New Collective".

Gvantsa Jishkariani is an artist whose primary medium is installation. Her work addresses first and foremost the temporary nature of the paradox that arises when searching for concrete definitions of right and wrong, old and new, art and design. Through her installations, videos and sculptures she takes traditional notions of cultural identity, ancient views, and paradoxical association of ideas and plays with them.

Gvantsa’s art is inspired by serendipity and intuition. She starts each work with preconceived composition and idea, but mostly without preliminary sketches. She wonders how traditions, modern superstitions and surrounding kitschy images influence on everyday life; how emotions, memories, views, personality and the sentimental value of the object is created.

Awards and Grants: 
2017 Tsinandali award in Visual Art, 1st Prize; Transcultural ArtLab, Juist, Germany; Frauenkulturburo NRW e.V., Dusseldorf, Germany; 2016 Yarat, Contemporary Art Space, Baku, Azerbaijan

Group and solo Exhibitions: 
2018 Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe, Project ArtBeat, Tbilisi, Georgia; 2017 Occurrences, Gallery Nectar, Tbilisi, Georgia; Project ArtBeat New Space Opening, Tbilisi, Georgia; ArtVerona, Verona, Italy ; TAVIDAN, CCA, Tbilisi, Georgia; Avoiding the Thought of White Bears, Weltkunstzimmer, Dusseldorf, Germany; Suffocation via Butterfly Effect, State Silk Museum, Tbilisi, Georgia; SAVANNA SAVAGE*, Moving Gallery by Project ArtBeat, Batumi, Georgia; 2016 Future Memory, Fest I Nova, Garikula, Georgia; Personal Love, Gallery Nectar, Tbilisi, Georgia; Witchcraft and Curiosity, A01 Fine Art Gallery, Naples, Italy ; Counterfait Goods, Yarat, Baku, Azerbaijan; 2015 Monologue with Equipment, D.U.O. Art Space, Vienna, Austria; Advice to the Young, Laznia - Center of Contemporary Art, Gdansk, Poland; 2nd Tbilisi Triennial, Rustavi, Georgia; Consumer’s Dream, Popiashvili-Gvaberidze Window Project, Tbilisi, Georgia 2014 Album, Gallery Nectar, Tbilisi, Georgia 2013 Art Rules, Presidential Palace, Tbilisi, Georgia; From 10 to 51, Center of Contemporary Art, Tbilisi, Georgia.


Avto Meskhi (B.1946 - 2016, Georgia)

The artist was born in Tbilisi, 1946 and lived and worked in Tbilisi and Rustavi. He starts painting in his childhood years and attends art lessons. Meskhi continues studies at I. Nikoladze Art School in the class of Ketevan Maghalashvili. He failed two times and was not able to pass exams for Tbilisi State Academy of Arts.

Solo and group exhibitions:
Meskhi worked as an ”unofficial”, underground artist in the Soviet Period. Although, from 1968, the artist takes part in group exhibitions: in Moscow (1974), St. Petersburg (1982). From 1990, Meskhi is a member of Georgian Painters Union and his works are presented in Bonn, Germany, the same year. The artist’s works were presented at Art Worker’s House, Baia Gallery in Tbilisi. Archil Darchia organized Meskhi’s solo exhibition at Dzveli Gallery, several times. The artists works were included in group exhibition Reframing the 80s at D. Shevardnadze Georgian National Gallery, Tbilisi, 2013. In 2018, artists solo exhibition, Private Acquaintance was held in Project ArtBeat gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia. His works are kept in the private collections.


David Meskhi (B. 1979, Tbilisi, Georgia)

David Meskhi lives and works in Berlin, Germany. After gaining a Master’s Degree in hydro-ecology, Meskhi decided to change his profession entirely and turned to art. He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Photo Journalism at Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film State University, Tbilisi, Georgia.

Artist’s camera is always seeking for signs of life. The artworks reflect how photography becomes the instrument to idealize the existence and underline the means for sharing emotional experiences.

Most of Meskhi’s works show concealed layers of adolescent. The artist gets his inspiration from kids and he looks into their own forms of expression. Visually the artworks begin their existence as a set of photographic images, which break the boundaries of time. Meskhi captures young people whose bodies defy the law of gravitation.

Meskhi pursues existentialist ideology in his artworks. His photos represent Meskhi as a photographer and as an individual. Quiet sadness and melancholy oppose optimistic, vivid characters full of joy of life. These characters express idealism and at the same time reflect the feeling of sorrow. This is perhaps the bottom-line of the message the photographer tries to pass on.

Since 2004 David Meskhi has been working as a photographer and photojournalist for several magazines. In 2011, artist’s solo exhibitions were held: in Austria (Eternal Distance, Anika Handelt Galerie) and Germany (Higher, Galerie Micky Schubert). Meskhi participated in group exhibitions such as: 2014 PhotoVisa-VI, International Festival of Photography, Krasnodar, Russia; 2013 Photo Festival of Arles, La Nuit de l’Année, Arles, France; Tbilisi Photography Festival, Tbilisi, Georgia; 2012 Ich Ist Ein Anderer, Kunstverein Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; 2011 Sunny Side Up, Margate Photo Festival, UK; Explications 1.2, Georgian National Museum, Tbilisi, Georgia; IMAGO, Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany; Face to Face, Pobeda Gallery, Moscow, Russia; 2009 I Want a Print, Tel-Aviv, Israel and others.


Gio Sumbadze (B.1976, Tbilisi, Georgia)

Gio Sumbadze's practice focuses on the research into the Soviet architectural heritage of Georgia and the post-Soviet region. The exhibition showcases the selection of works from Sumbadze's latest series around the research into the painting traditions in Kutaisi, Georgia, through the architectural heritage of the place.

The works from the URB EX series depict interiors and exteriors of the former prison of Kutaisi, a current art school for children and a National Youth and Children's Palace of Georgia, all three of the public spaces situated in Kutaisi, Georgia. Sumbadze shows parallels between the informal drawings on the prison cells by the former prisoners, the Soviet interior decor of the former National Youth and Children's Palace of Georgia and drawings by children at a local art school.

Sumbadze uses photography as the means of documentation and through this media he observes how the painting tradition develops through out the three institutions, while shifting the borders of the private and the public.

Selected solo and group exhibitions: 
2015 - URB EX, TBC Gallery, Project ArtBeat Moving Gallery, Kutaisi, Georgia; 2014 - Tavidan, Hans Peter Zimmer Stiftung, Dusseldorf, Germany, 2013 - Kamikaze Loggia, The Georgian Pavilion, 55th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy; 2010 - Frozen Moments, Architecture Speaks Back, Ministry of Transportation, Tbilisi, Georgia; 2009 - Born In Georgia, CoBra Museum, Amstelveen, Netherlands.


Beso Uznadze (B. 1968, Tbilisi, Georgia)

Photographer, Beso Uznadze, mostly works on photo portraits, reportage and through thematic photo series. He takes his inspiration from ordinary feelings and incidents which make up daily life: melancholy, happiness, love, separation, sex, fear and death. Uznadze's work is dominated in particular by portraits of people whom he has encountered in his immediate surroundings. Through them he narrates their stories, dreams and fears. To date his photo series include: 2B, In the Mood for Love, Don’t Wake Me, Tbilisi Portraits, Georgians in the UK, Broadway Market.

In his latest work, Uznadze uses flower images and aesthetics from the natural world. He focuses on attractive details and, through a combination of techniques working across the boundaries of photography, sculpture and painting, is able to convey an exuberant creative imagination. Each image is composed of details separated from an original image and brought together into a new whole. Often several images are combined into a single image: some parts are hidden – shadowy hints of a form - and some of them are shown in a translucent manner framed within another image. The energy and mood of each image is largely determined by the rich palette of colours used by Uznadze during this process. 

In this way the viewer is drawn into a compelling, sometimes exotic sometimes dark world. The images are at one and the same time complex, and nuanced while achieving an overall sense of coherence and wholeness.
Beso Uznadze lives and works in London, UK.

Awards and scholarships:
2008 British Journal of Photography International Award, London, UK; 2003 Ian Parry Scholarship, London, UK; 2003 Metro imaging competition, London, UK.

Selected solo and group exhibitions:
2016 START Art Fair, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK; 2016 KONTAKTPHOTOS, Black & White Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia; 2015 PULSE Art Fair, NY, USA; 2015 Un Homme, Chapitre III, Galerie Hors-Champs, Paris, France; 2014 Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair, Istanbul, Turkey; 2014 Artisterium, Tbilisi, Georgia; 2011 Tbilisi photo Festival, Tbilisi, Georgia; 2011 Les Rencontres De La Photographie, Arles, France; 2010 Artisterium, Tbilisi, Georgia; 2009 The International Festival of Photography, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy; 2008 Taylor-Wessing Photographic Competition, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK; 2004 Schweppes Photographic Competition, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK.


Project ArtBeat will be participating at HIVE section with Maka Batiashvili's works.


Maka Batiashvili (B. 1975, Tbilisi, Georgia)

Batiashvili accomplished her Bachelor degree in Fine Art at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts in 1997 and since then she works in graphical drawing, oil painting, photography and film. Her exuberant work depicts scenes from the everyday. Through the subject matter, Batiashvili poses questions around the existential issues of life and death. In her work the everyday life resembles a playground, where various scenes are being performed. Ostensibly unmediated figures and the intense color scheme in Batiashvili's work share stylistic tendencies with the early modernist painting traditions of Georgia and Europe. Batiashvili's practice is an interesting cross between the traditional and the contemporary painting, developing the well-established tradition of painting popular in the republic of Georgia.
Maka Batiashvili lives and works in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Selected solo and group exhibitions: 
2015 – START Art Fair, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK; Playground, TBC Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia; Exhibition of Georgian Painters, Contemporary Art Center, Tel Aviv, Israel; 2013 - Untitled, Arundel Gallery, Arundel, UK; 2012 - Untitled, Industrial Gallery, Ostrava, the Czech Republic; 2011 - Black and White, Tbilisi History Museum, Tbilisi, Georgia; 2008 - OFF EUROPA Festival, Leipzig, Germany; Photography Exhibition, National Museum, Atlanta, USA.