Keti Kapanadze - Poison for a Couple

TBC Concept, 7 Kote Marjanishvili Str., Tbilisi, Georgia

10 April - 30 May, 2024

TBC Concept is pleased to present Keti Kapanadze's solo exhibition Poison for a Couple. The title references the artist's 1990 black-and-white photo depicting a pair of old-fashioned perfume bottles. The show features her early series of works, which will be displayed for the first time in Georgia and occupy both exhibition halls of the TBC Concept.

The exhibition includes a fascinating collection of black-and-white conceptual photos from the 1990s. Additionally, it features Anima Ex Machina texts and drawings created with black gouache on paper, which were later transitioned to cardboard. The artist employed a technique akin to automatic writing exercises. The drawings resemble technical diagrams and convey a sense of mystery. The artist believes that blackness represents a space where all information is stored, and her indecipherable drawings emerge from this realm. Some of the works included in the exhibition were originally created in the 1980s, but in 2003-04, the artist remade some of them as part of the lost original works. She also introduced several new compositions, expanding the series.

The exhibition will also include Akasha Chronicles painting series (2010), which involves layered canvases with transparent material.

Keti Kapanadze began her artistic career in Tbilisi in the mid-1980s. While such artist groups like the 10th Floor and later Marjanishvili Studio artists were active then, Kapanadze was not part of these groups and was seldom invited to exhibit alongside them. She stands out as one of the pioneering feminist artists in Georgia, delving into her identity through conceptual photography. Kapanadze describes her artistic process as capturing objects without showing herself yet conveying her message through these objects, expressing the depth of her identity and experiences.

Keti Kapanadze often exhibits in Germany, where she has been living since 2000 when she received Bauman Stiftung's stipend. She was a visiting professor at Johannes Gutenberg University (Mainz, Germany), and later, supervised the diploma projects at VA[A]DS at the Free University of Tbilisi.
Keti Kapanadze lives and works in Germany and Georgia.