With:
Schalwa Chachanaschwili
Guram Cibachaschwili
Manana Dwali
Mamuka Japaridse
Keti Kapanadse
Nikolos Lomaschwili
Koka Ramischwili
Giorgi Sumbadse
Iliko Zautaschwili
Mamuka Zezchladse
Niko Zezchladse
The exhibition “Between Photography and Painting – Art from Georgia” at the ifa Gallery Friedrichstraße provides what is probably the most comprehensive and newest insight into the contemporary art of Georgia in Germany at present. 12 artists show works from the last 3 years.
In Germany, not much is known about the development of art in Georgia in recent years. Its film art is better known. In the studio cinemas you can find masterpieces of Georgian film being screenedfrom time to time. This makes a look at the current art scene in this country in transition all the more exciting.
The artists involved in this exhibition – all born around 1960 – lived through a time when Georgia was called upon to become an independent state. The civil war in 1992 and the secession of Abkhazia from Georgia with its catastrophic consequences have had a deep impact on the consciousness of the artists, but these events are rarely talked about. It is important to the artists to remember the values shaped by their culturally rich history.
The exhibited works are conceptual and are characterised by romantic-sentimental and literary ideas. All the artists have studied painting. Painting and the photographic view present in painting plays an important roleis subjected to an individual style of development. Their works move on a narrow path between irony and cynicism, oscillating between optimism and despair, kitschy appearance and brutal reality.