Contemporary Istanbul 2017
Presented artists: Maka Batiashvili, Irakli Bugiani, George Gagoshidze, Levan Mindiashvili, Maia Naveriani, Nika Sakhanberidze, Lado Pochkhua, Maya Sumbadze and Beso Uznadze
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:
2017 Exhibition of Drawings, Moving Gallery by Project ArtBeat, Tbilisi, Georgia, 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.
Irakli Bugiani (B. 1980, Tbilisi, Georgia)
Bugiani accomplished his studies in Fine Art at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts in 2001. Since then he studied at Ecole des Beux Arts in Rouen, France, at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe, Germany and received MA in Art History at the Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf, Germany in 2010.
Bugiani works in painting and collage. His works depict interiors and exteriors of architecture empty of human presence. The abstract imagery composed with rough strokes of oil on canvas combined with application, leave an impression of the yet unfinished work in process. The impressionistic landscapes, seascapes and washed out portraits compose the exploration into the fictional and the historical facts of one's memory. The combination of the subject matter and the working style evoke an unsettling ambiguity.
Irakli Bugiani lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Selected solo and group exhibitions:
2016 - To See a World in a Grain of Sand, organized by Project ArtBeat, GNM, Georgian National Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia. 2015- Ausstellungseröffnung: 191°S, WELTKUNSTZIMMER, Dusseldorf, Germany; Kunstpunkte 2015, Dusseldorf, Germany; Heritage, RICHMIX Arts Centre, London, UK; 2014 -Crossing the boundaries, AT388, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2013 - Kunstpreis Junger Westen 2013, Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, Recklinghausen, Germany; 2012 - Post Coitum Omne Animal Triste Est,Damenundherren e.V., Dusseldorf, Germany; 2011 - Zwischen Gestern und Morgen, Gallery 10, Karlsruhe, Germany.
George Gagoshidze (B. 1983, Tbilisi, Georgia)
Gagoshidze works in mediums such as painting and drawing. His works are inspired by the mountainous landscapes, the environment in which the artist grew up. In the works of his series: "Abastumani" and "From the veranda of the studio" the image of an actual environment is generalized and drawn close to abstraction. Nowadays the artist paints a line between abstraction and landscape. Contrasting colored spots on the surface with rhythmically arranged interplay of lines and planes provoke in the viewer the association of the rounded hills; but, sometimes are simply seen as abstract shapes, or an aesthetic combination.
George Gagoshidze lives and works in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Selected solo and group exhibitions:
2016 - Baia Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia; 2015 - Inner Mountains, UŽUPIS ART INCUBATOR, Galera, Vilnius, Lithuania; 2012 - Vernissage Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia; 2010 - Open Gallery, Open Society Georgia Foundation, Tbilisi, Georgia; 2009 - Vernissage Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia; 2007 - Vernissage Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia.
Levan Mindiashvili (B. 1979, Tbilisi, Georgia)
His artistic research covers topics such as memory and identity - the issues actual in today's post-Soviet culture of Georgia, where the artist was born. Yet the central axis to his works remains the relationship between the private and the public, while questioning the subject/object dichotomies. The series of works presented at Boundaries, create a dialogue between one's most intimate physical spaces and the exteriors of architecture of the suburban New York in fragments.
Levan Mindiashvili lives and works in New York, USA.
Selected solo and group exhibitions:
2017 Here organized by Project ArtBeat, GNM, Svaneti Museum of History and Ethnography,Mestia, Georgia, 2017 - Art Dubai, Dubai, UAE; 2016 - (extra)ordinary, the Hollows, New, York, USA; Aesthetics of Repair in Contemporary Georgia, Tartu Art Museum, Tartu, Estonia, 2015-Structures, The Manny Cantor Center, New York, USA; KIOSK, Odetta Gallery, New York, USA; Suites for Unintended Archeology, the Vazquez Building, New York, USA; 2015 - Heritage, RICHMIX Arts Centre, London, UK; 2014 - Borderlines, the Lodge Gallery, New York, USA; 2014 - Crossing the Boundaries.03, AT388, Rotterdam, Netherlands; 2013 - Urban Identities, Kunstraub99 Art Gallery, Cologne, Germany; 2011 - Movistar Arte Joven 2011, Borges Cultural Center, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Maia Naveriani (B. 1966, Tbilis, Georgia)
Maia Naveriani studied under Gia Edzgeveradze before completing her formal training at the Academy of Fine Arts, Tbilisi. Having moved to London, in 1989, she was nominated by Annely Juda Fine Art for the the Vordemberger Gildewart Foundation international prize in 1999, which she won. Since then she has taken part in numerous solo and group exhibitions in both public and commercial spaces including Fordham Gallery, Danielle Arnaud Gallery, London; Neues Kunstforum, Cologne; Museum Wiesbaden; Museum Bochum; Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund; Netwerk, Aalst; Cirius Art Centre, Cork; Leonard Hutton Galleries, New York and CoBra museum, Amsterdam. She also became a member of the group Everything is Alright founded by Gia Edzgeveradze, taking part in many performances in public spaces including Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Museum Bochum, Bochum and Museum Kunst Palatz, Dusseldorf. Maia Naveriani is represented in Germany by Galerie Voss, Dusseldorf. The artist lives and works in Tbilisi and London.
Nika Sakhanberidze (B. 1981, Tbilisi, Georgia)
Nika Sakhanberidze established as an artist in Tbilisi, without having any professional training in the field. Since the early 90's he has been having solo as well as group exhibitions in Tbilisi, New York, London, Montreal and other. During 2008-2010 Nika Sakhanberidze studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, University of London.
Sakhanberidze’s practice mostly covers painting and mixed media sculpture. His work also has street art and performance art elements. Sakhanberidze’s iconic work Anbernika Stickers - a five leaf flower sticker spread as a virus. This famous 'Virus' of 2000's has been spread through Georgia and across its borders and still continues to proliferate. His 2015 series of work, commissioned by Project ArtBeat, include mixed media and Acrylic painting. The series bring together general tendencies of the artist's practice. Colour as the central subject of the artistic research, remains at focus, whereas his main artistic goal is to challenge painting as a media. Working closely with sciences such as Botanic, Oceanology and Entomology, Sakhanberidze is inspired by the colours of the sea creatures, minerals, various exotic plants and insects. In his work, he uses phosphorus and other fluorescent colours, which glow in the dark and change their shades according to the intensity of an ultraviolet ray. The artist introduces the colours popular in the Natural sciences and validates their importance in the discipline of art. In 2015, Nika Sakhanberidze's solo exhibition was held at Moving Gallery by Project ArtBeat. Sakhanberide's works were presented at Young International Art Fair in Paris, France, 2015.
Nika Sakhanberidze lives and works in New York, USA.
Lado Pochkhua (B. 1970, Sokhumi, Georgia) based in New York, USA.
Lado Pochkhua is a Georgian artist who lives and works in New York. Pochkhua graduated from the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts with a Master’s degree in Painting and Printmaking in 2001. Since then, he has lived and worked in different countries such as: Georgia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Hungary and the United States. Pochkua has been gaining academic knowledge for years. He has been interested in the experience and style of classic painters. Different periods of his work were dedicated to practicing new techniques and media. The artist uses a technique of hand drawing, works in pen and ink often on a large-format. Presentation of classical images and style in new formats is a subject of his interest.
Selected solo and group exhibitions:
2015- Discover Georgia in New York, Chelsea Market, New York, USA; 2013- Artisterium, Georgian National Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia; Random Sample, Inaugural Exhibition of Brooklyn Box Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, USA; 2012- Artisterium, National Parliamentary Library of Georgia, Tbilisi Georgia; 2010- Future Seeking Memories, Lecture and solo show, Assumption College, Worcester, MA, USA; 2009- Extended Painting: Prague Biennale IV, Georgia Pavillion, Prague Czech Republic; 2008- Gardens, Ships and Lessons, K. Petrys Ház Gallery, Budapest, Hungary; Exhibition of Georgian Artists, Festival OFF EUROPA ditorei Gallerie NBL, Leipzig, Germany; 2003- Curriculum Vitae: a retrospective of 20th century Georgian art, Tbilisi History Museum, Tbilisi, Georgia.
Maya Sumbadze (B.1972, Tbilisi, Georgia)
Stemming from the graphic design tradition, Sumbadze's work is of a graphical fashion, based on the language of a line. Born in USSR, Sumbadze takes her inspiration from the Soviet aesthetics of graphic design of utilitarian objects and architecture. Boundaries showcases the selection of her water color work and digital print. The work combines the imaginary and the actual memories of Sumbadze's lived childhood in the USSR and of the present, as the post-Soviet reality. This is how the boundaries between the experienced and the imagined shift, while composing another reality of the possible.
Maya Sumbadze lives and works in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Selected solo and group exhibitions:
2016- Memory and Continuity: a Selection from the Huma Kabakcı Collection, Pera Museum, Istanbul, Turkey; 2015- 2nd Tbilisi Triennial S.O.S. Self-Organized Systems, CCA, Tbilisi, Georgia; 2014 - Untold Stories, Video ArtLab., Europe House, Tbilisi, Georgia; 2013 - Pulsart Restart, East Mission Project, Schio, Italy, 2013 - Take me Out, Artarea Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia; 2012 - Tamada's Tutorial, Gallery Meet Factory, Prague, Czech Republic; 2011 - On the Way, Center of Contemporary Art, Tbilisi, Georgia; 2009 - Born In Georgia, CoBra Museum, Amstelveen, Netherlands.
Beso Uznadze (B. 1968, Tbilisi, Georgia)
Uznadze's new 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 lives and works London, UK.
Selected solo and group exhibitions:
2017 Forgotten Vistas, Moving Gallery by Project ArtBeat, Tbilisi, Georgia, 2016 START Art Fair, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK,. 2016 KONTAKTPHOTOS, Black & White Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia; 2015 Un Homme, Chapitre III, Galerie Hors-Champs, Paris, France; 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.