Exhibition: Keti Davlianidze’s Abkhazia
August is just around the corner. That generally means two things, one – traffic in western Georgia is going to get really heavy, and two, more than any other time of year, Georgia is going to be remembering the August War of 2008. While the on-going protest wave and recent activities of both the Georgian and Russian sides keep the memory fresh, artists have taken it upon themselves to do their part. Keti Davlianidze, for one, will be presenting her new exhibition ‘Keti Davlianidze’s Abkhazia’ at the Georgian Museum of Fine Arts from August 7 to August 15.
The Abkhazia-themed exposition with an anti-occupation emphasis is symbolically dedicated to the 11th anniversary of the August 2008 war. Given that the artist has personal links to Abkhazia, her background and home, the artworks on display will bear contagious empathy. “Re-living landscapes and emotions through color is my way of reclaiming my share of Abkhazia,” the artist says.
Aside from paintings, the exhibition will be made into a whole with other artistic effects. The audio/video installation incorporated into the exhibition seeks to awaken emotions and overcome indifference and apathy. Davlianidze’s oil paintings will “walk” in a procession down Melikishvili Avenue personally to “visit” viewers at Rustaveli 7. The video installation visualizes the encounter between passersby and the works, the former’s reactions and emotions. This piece aims to help visitors overcome self-protective apathy and face the tragedy of what they have lost. “I want to help people visualize that which we cannot see but should never forget, that which, at the same time, is an integral part of our being,” Davlianidze says.
Keti Davlianidze, oil painter, graphic artist, production designer, was born in Tbilisi on August 30, 1976. In 1993-1998, she studied easel graphics at the Tbilisi Academy of Fine Arts, concurrently attending classes at Karaman Kutateladze’s studio, and later, in 1998, at Sergo Kobuladze’s studio.
In the process of studying the artistic traditions of contemporary Western oil painting, while still seeking her own language of expression, Keti Davlianidze’s passion for abstract expressionism proved to be decisive. To this day, her compositions boast enormous expressiveness. Stylistic diversity agrees with the artist’s inquisitive character. Her oil paintings and graphic pieces echo one message - the transience of time and the fragility of human beings in the modern world. The artist is unique in her personal model of the universe, created with a distinctive style derived from the conditionality of images and artistic distortion, and with symbolism of items and graphic techniques of representation.
Keti Davlianidze’s works are preserved at the Georgian Museum of Fine Arts and various private collections in Spain (Barcelona), Germany (Berlin, Dusseldorf), and the US (Washington, New York, Atlanta), Russia (Moscow).
The exposition at the Georgian Museum of Fine Arts will display the following oil paintings:
Bichvinta, Sokhumi Boulevard, Gagripshi, A View of Sokhumi and will be open from August 7 to August 15, 2019.
By Nini Dakhundaridze