Little Georgia in Los Angeles

An art exhibition in Los Angeles titled “Inner Pieces” is stimulating considerable media attention in one of the main art hubs of the world. The show, which opened this month at the M.D. Art Gallery on the famous West 3rd Street represents a physical manifestation of the spiritual that transcends the temporal.

For Georgian readers this art exhibition is considerable because, on its interior, the show curators have put up paintings by　Georgian artist Mirza Davitaia. Davitaia, who was the State Minister of Diaspora Issues of Georgia until 2012, moved to Los Angeles to make art and movies full time. Art critics think that the painter, who has exhibited his works internationally, is as successful　 in contemporary arts as in his former political career. Recently, Ningbo Museum of Art in China began exhibiting Davitaia’s “Spirit Rain” as part of its permanent collection. His works are further exhibited in Paris- France, Nuremberg-Germany, Tbilisi-Georgia and Vladimir-Russia.

Mirza Davitaia has been painting for as long as he can remember. Back when he was a boy, Davitaia Sr., also a painter, ensconced his son in the Elementary School of Art, in Tbilisi, Georgia. Davitaia junior came of age when the country was controlled by the Soviet Union. The artist took the best of his Georgian origin to Western Europe where he studied painting at the Academy of Nuremberg, West Germany, an experience which opened the young painter to the extravagance of creative possibilities in those with a Western mentality. He returned home and took his place in the Georgian fight for independence from Russia. “It was a fight for both political and artistic freedom,” says the artist. “The sweetness of line, color and texture and the plastically of his painting mirrors Davitaia’s inner exploration for non-linear independence,” says German art professor Christian Hamsea as he evaluates Davitaia’s art.

“He has a sophisticated and at the same time innovative style, his contribution is vital to Fine art in any country,” says Chevalier Tony Clarck, curator of the exhibition ‘Inner Pieces.’　

“His compositions are dynamic and emotional. Davitaia is an artist who has grasped the technique of telling the story behind his art. He isn’t just selling painting- he’s selling an experience, that’s why I almost always buy paintings from each new series,”says private collector Khatia de Adams.

‘Inner pieces’ is a Fine Art exhibition of art from around the world. Besides Davitaia’s works, it shows the paintings of worldly renowned artists Anita Rosenberg, Hal Yaskulka, Ivan Butoract and David Gardner. Curators believe that what makes this exhibition unique is that all artists within the show share an interest in the wildly imaginative nature of storytelling, and the visual fusion of fantasy and reality in a narrative context.

Mirza Davitaia feels he is experiencing a very important period in his art: “South California has different energy, different light, I am absorbing these experiences and transferring them into my colors and shapes; this is the purpose of being an artist,” he says.

M. Tsereteli