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The Arts

Qeu Meparishvili

Multimedia Georgian artist Qeu Meparishvili works within the Tbilisi art scene. After graduating from the Centre of Contemporary Art in 2015, she teamed up with fellow Georgian artist Salome Dumbadze to produce collaborative works under the name SHRAM Collective. Specialising in video, installations and sculpture, Qeu often marries humour with painful experiences from her own life in her work.

As an artist, Qeu is well versed in art spaces around her home city. In her guide, Qeu lists out her favourite contemporary art galleries and project studios around Tbilisi.

German-born curator Lisa Offermann founded the LC Queisser gallery in 2018. With a focus on contemporary works, the gallery presents a balanced programme of Georgian and foreign artists – like mid-career Georgian artists, Ketuta Alexi-Meskhishvili, Thea Gvetadze and Tolia Astakhishvili – with newcomers such as Keto Logua, next to an international roster; including Ser Serpas, Stefanie Heinze, Sitara Abuzar Ghaznawi, Lisa Alvarado and Won Cha. Furthermore, the gallery agenda concentrates on protecting local cultural heritage and promotes important artistic figures, such as mid-twentieth century textile artist Tamaz Nutsubidze and self-taught epitome Elene Chantladze. The gallery is the co-founder of Tbilisi Residencies and the bilingual publishing initiative Kona Books.

Gallery Artbeat is one of the pioneering contemporary art galleries based in Tbilisi, Georgia, representing mid-career and emerging Georgian artists. Between 2014 and 2017 the gallery started its journey as a project space, a moving gallery using a shipping container for site-specific exhibitions to introduce contemporary art in peripheral locations where museums and galleries don't function. In 2017 the gallery found its permanent home in the heart of Tbilisi. They work with Georgian artists of different generations: Nika Kutateladze, Tamo Jugeli, Keti Kapanadze, Anna K.E., Mamuka Japaridze and many others.

Founded by a curator and writer Elene Abashidze, E.A. Shared Space is a project space situated in front of the national Chancellery building, focusing on contemporary art practices with a strong political dimension. Showing outstanding Georgian artists like Salome Dumbadze, Maia Naveriani, Nino Sekhniashvili. E.A. Shared Space manages to realise solo exhibitions of well-established international artists, such as Florian Meisenberg, Jala Wahid, Sophie Jung and more. Furthermore, the project space has a curated bookstore and a communal library, commonly used for public talks, built through donations by local and international art practitioners and non-profit organisations.

The Why Not Gallery was founded in 2018 by two friends, artist Gvantsa Jishkariani and curator Ellen Kapanadze with an intention to support young Georgian artists. The gallery welcomes and encourages all sorts of experimentation and trials. They work with local practitioners in many media, such as Ana Chaduneli, George Nebieridze, Mariam Aqubardia, Shalva Nikvashvili, Ani Gurashvili and more. The gallery also hosts The Why Not Gallery Gift Shop, which closely partners with Georgian artists to release limited edition goods.

Patara gallery is an artist-run space, initially located in a busy underground passage in central Tbilisi that changed many sites in a nomadic manner. Patara, Georgian for ‘small’, is a darling of the city. [It was] founded in 2017 as the only artist-run, non-commercial space for young and daring art by Gvantsa Jishkariani and Nata Kipiani. This is a place where the invisible barrier between public and sterile – a stressful atmosphere of contemporary art galleries – is destroyed as exhibitions are visible from the outside, allowing passersby to [see] what they currently have on display. This small vitrine space utilised as a gallery discovers unknown artists, thus taking many risks, embracing mistakes, and creating a public means of experiencing contemporary art.

Gallery 4710 is a contemporary art gallery that opened in 2019. The gallery mainly collaborates with emerging Georgian artists. However, a number of mid-career artists have been shown in a group or duo show format; among them Natela Iankoshvili, Thea Gvetadze, Tamuna Sirbiladze, Gio Sumbadze, Keti Kapanadze, Vajiko Chachkhiani, Leila Shelia and Nino Kvrivishvili. It aims to function as a discovery platform that introduces local newcomers to a larger, international public, as well as gives that space for executing debut solo shows for many, like Salome Jokhadze, Tamar Nadiradze, Tornike Robakidze, Merab Gugunashvili, Aleksandre Beglarishvili, Teimuraz Eristavi, Tornike Gognadze, Mari Kalabegashvili, Anka Bochorishvili and more. 

Maudi is a multifunctional space for contemporary art, founded by a team of architects – Lado Shonia and Dimitri Eristavi – and curator Liza Zhvania. The exhibition space is situated in the Soviet industrial heritage building named after the material ‘maudi’ (​​broadcloth) manufactured there. Rather than a gallery, a project space hosts various events and happenings, such as contemporary art or architecture exhibitions, performances, live music sessions of different genres, and talks.

Patara

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