Lado Pochkhua - The Book for the New Aristocracy

8, E. Ninoshvili str., Tbilisi, Georgia

Project ArtBeat presents Lado Pochkhua’s solo exhibition the Book for the New Aristocracy at its Moving Gallery. 

“When I started working on the series The Book for the New Aristocracy, it seemed like the project would be confined to an album of satirical sketches of people of power reduced to their pompous trappings and costumes. My starting point was to explore the converse of Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes”: I was compelled by the question of what if, instead of the naked emperor, only the outfit remained as the sign of power? 

What was once a one-time project for me has become a major theme in my work. Today's political realities, especially in the United States, is such that the office of Lincoln and Roosevelt will be occupied by existential emptiness. The terrible transformation of power pushes me to continue; every time I think that my exploration of the empty suits of the nouveau riche is at an end, I see renewed relevance of this series.

I want to create a simulacra of an interior salon, with pictures and portraits of ancestors on the walls, for a solo exhibition of my ideas about the emptiness of modern power. I see this work as a continuation of the themes I exhibited at Volta Basel, 2016”. – Lado Pochkhua, 2017.

Lado Pochkhua (B. 1970) based in New York, USA. Lado Pochkhua is a Georgian artist who lives and works in New York. Pochkhua was born in Sukhumi, 1970 during the Soviet period. In 1993, he graduated from Sukhumi College of Art. During 1992-93 as a result of the military conflict in Abkhazia, the artist had to leave Sukhumi and together with other refugees he settled in Tskneti, nearby Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. 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. Artist’s works were presented at Prague Biennale IV, at the Georgia Pavilion in 2009. Pochkhua’s solo exhibition was held at the Dimitri Shevardnadze National Gallery, 2013. The same year, the artist’s artworks were exhibited at the Brooklyn Box Gallery. In 2014, Lado Pochkhua’s works were presented at Art Dubai Fair. Project ArtBeat presented Pochkhua’s works at VOLTA 12 in Basel, Switzerland, 2016 and at VOLTA NY in New York, USA, 2017.

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. 

The project is supported by Tbilisi City Hall and Fabrika.