ARTINTERNATIONAL Istanbul
Presented artists: Irakli Bugiani, Levan Mindiashvili, Gio Sumbadze, Maya Sumbadze
Boundaries is a curated booth for ARTINTERNATIONAL Istanbul 2015 that took place during September 4 – 6 at Haliç Congress Center, Istanbul, Turkey.
Boundaries presents works by Irakli Bugiani, Levan Mindiashvili, Gio Sumbadze and Maya Sumbadze. The exhibition challenges the subject/object dichotomies and focuses on the relationship between the subjective realm of one in their most intimate environment and the one outside of it.
Irakli Bugiani (B. 1980) lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany.
His works depict interiors and exteriors of architecture empty of human presence. The abstract imagery composed with rough strokes of oil on canvas leave an impression of the yet unfinished work in process. The impressionistic 'unfinished' seascapes, washed out portraits and collages of fragmented imagery compose the exploration into the boundaries of fiction and historical fact of one's memory.
Selected solo and group exhibitions:
2015 - 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.
Levan Mindiashvili (B. 1979) is based in Brooklyn, New York.
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.
Selected solo and group exhibitions:
2015 - 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;
Gio Sumbadze (B.1976) based in 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.
Maya Sumbadze (B.1972) lives and works in 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.
Selected solo and group exhibitions:
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.