On September 12, Alexei Dubinsky's solo exhibition "Eva's Life and Other Notes" opened at Windows Project.
„We live in a world of things and objects. We often scold our everyday routine and complain about the absence of great events in our life perceiving ourselves as small and insignificant.
We walk from one corner to another and curse a mediocre day we lived rapidly sinking to the bottom of our perception, depersonalizing the surrounding world, gradually erasing ourselves from this image. But often one just needs to rest his/her gaze at any small detail and see in it all the splendor of the world.
This series was inspired by the numerous sketches I collect as the travel notes and include in albums, photographs, and sometimes even little texts. I try to find small, at the first glance inconspicuous details in everyday life and very often use these details, objects,
characters, and spaces to assemble the plots, which are put together through applying of the collage method. Often these are entire scenes in their original form. But all my findings can also exist as separate independent images. In the given collection, I wanted to show exactly that moment when a small detail can tell its own story but can also exist in a context of a larger plot giving it a certain semantic coloring.
Here these plots are presented by the sketches to the series Life of Eve. These are the stories about Eve’s ordinary everyday routine and its moments. Eve is a personification of a human soul lost in the dimensions of everyday life but remaining as mysteriously attractive as she used to be at the very beginning of time. This is an attempt to look at life from the inside, to look at it with a pure gaze that sees the true beauty and magic of this world.
I try to look at life and the world around me from the point of view of simplicity of perception, but this simplicity also allows me to see what is hidden inside the world of things, objects, and typical events. When you build up a sincere relationship with the world and open yourself to it, it starts to reveal deep and eternal truths in its simplicity. The greatness of everyday life, the significance and magic of everyday life, which allows you to penetrate the boundless vastness of the universe through the keyhole.“- is written in the press release of the exhibition.
“THE GAZE”- Lia Shvelidze's personal exhibition at the Zurab Tsereteli Museum of Contemporary Art
From October 20 to November 20, the works of artist Lia Shvelidze can be viewed at the
Zurab Tsereteli Museum of Contemporary Art. The series of works, which are united under
the title "The Gaze", are created in different periods, so the technique, material and context
are different. Although the works presented in the exposition are separated from each other by time intervals, it becomes clear that the artist's gaze returns to the faces of "unknown sisters" each time. Lia Shvelidze shows unknown women from different perspectives at different times,
but she never makes a veil over their identities and does not develop a story around their lives. The artist explores the "Unknown Sisters" and takes the viewers on a journey into her own field of vision. The main interest of the artist is the cognition of life, which she looks at through the eyes of a woman. Texts are often included in compositions, which define the artistic and principal accents of the work. In Lia Shvelidze's art, the face of a woman stands on the edge of the specific and the general, she is so familiar, but at the same time, foreign and isolated. The eyes of the viewers and the artist intersect on the threshold of these two sides.
Lia Shvelidze's works have been frequently exhibited in various museums and galleries since the 1980s. Her works are preserved in both state and private foundations and collections.
In 1987-1991 Lia Shvelidze actively worked in the Marjanishvili Theater studio with the artists of the group "10th Floor". She has taken part in various festivals and group exhibitions.
John Riepenhoff and Mamuka Japharidze – Kera at Gallery Artbeat
Gallery Artbeat is pleased to present 'Kera', a collaborative exhibition of John Riepenhoff and Mamuka Japharidze.
When chance finds you at an unknown crossroad you begin to hesitate. You do not know which
direction to go. In such moment if you have adequate faculty of intuition and observation, cues from the environment can guide you to the right decision and lead to safety.
The condition of our contemporary world somehow seems to stand at this crossroad of being
disoriented- as if you understand that it’s impossible to bring back life’s old familiarity nor can you
clearly envision a stable future. In search of alternative choices probably many ideas are elaborated in force majeure by mankind’s overheated mind, but as always cultural and artistic phenomenon comes forward in ‘avant-guard’ and tries in advance to show us ‘ephemeral’ abilities of transformation. John Riepenhoff is an artist from Milwaukee, who has recently returned his gaze up to the sky. For a while he had established himself as a painter of the night sky, but similar to Ivan Aivazovsky who overcame banal cliché of being a just marine painter, he began to search for artistic observatories on earth in order to better see worlds beyond the sky.
Artist Mamuka Japharidze runs a residency in Shindisi village near to Tbilisi in Georgia. He often invites artists from Georgia and abroad to have creative collaborations. It is worth considering the context of this residency because Mamuka Japharidze’s art is situated in the phenomenon of place. Local climate, landscape features, elements of traditional life or history are some examples of materials which Japharidze uses to create environmentally friendly art. These products bear artistic value as well as practical functionalities such as nurturing food and drink.
Since Riepenhoff began to work at the residency his attention was drawn to the characteristic content of little details around the place. After helping with the rigorous process of crushing Chinuri grapes brought from the historical Samachablo region, which is located over the Russian occupied boarder-line, he quietly reflected on the details of the process while he doceumented the October night sky. This same silence necessary for the fermentation of Chinuri grapes was present in his minimal state for perception and processing.
In addition to winemaking, themes of Japharidze’s magnetic hearths influenced Riepenhoff’s creative process as well. As a result, Riepenhoff created six metaphorical portraits of Japaridze’s in small format paintings. Theme of the sky or in other words John’s main subject of interest was perceived exactly through such ‘details’. Thus, ‘The Skies’ over Shindisi, Tbilisi or Kutaisi clearly gained characteristic accents of Chinuri or Shavkapito grape plants.
In parallel Japharidze was making preparations as well although in a different way. He was occupied mainly by activities of autumnal works, and the process of painting was handed over to external circumstances. The large scale wall work presented in this exhibition was formerly acted as a tabletop near to the tone wood-fired oven. The surface was built up over time with lime and cyanide paints covering the canvas, on which invisible traces of nature appeared day by day. Marks made by wind, rain, and sun were scattered all over the picture plain and like the depths of the sky revealed endless layers.
At the last stage of working process of American and Georgian painters, the artworks which have been created with an interaction with the nature of the countryside, gradually and harmoniously must transit to urban space and represent themselves in a gallery. John Riepenhoff and Mamuka Japharidze’s artistic collaboration will take place in the Gallery Artbeat located in the old town of Tbilisi and traditionally will touch on topics of place and its adoption. At this time their work will concentrate on the elegant granite-stone fire-place of this historic gallery.
‘Kera’ (hearth) is a universal place for daily activities and religious rituals across the cultural spectra. In this exhibition it represents functional space of peculiar portal, transitory or so called liminal phenomenon, where artists do not present their art works in a dominant way, but rather let the external circumstances lead, trying neatly to reveal mystical traces of nature and their creative process to viewers. As a result of random occurrences, whenever you find yourself at an unknown crossroad you begin to hesitate. You do not know which direction to go. In such moment if you have adequate faculty of intuition and observation, environment itself can guide you to the right decision and lead to a safe place.
Visitors can see the exhibition until December 12.