An Artistic Couple: Nina Pery
GEORGIA TODAY is continuing its collaboration with BI Auction, presenting to you Georgian artistic couples. In this week’s issue, we have Nina Pery as our guest, telling us how painting chose her, and about her biggest inspirations, the meaning of art and living with a fellow artist, Sandro Dalikashvili, who you will be reading about next week.
Who first introduced you to art? How and when did you start painting?
I was born into a family of artists and it felt like it was painting that chose me early on.
With an artist of a mother and a sculptor of a father, it felt like I was growing up in an art academy: I’d often tag along with my mother and watch her work. I could watch it forever: how the brush moves upon the canvas, how, slowly, an object is created in colors. I would listen to discussions and reasoning on art and different painters. I loved these processes and I would become completely involved in them. My mother, Irina Pkhaladze, is an amazing painter and the vivid colors and bold shapes in her works are subjects of my inspiration. It was she who taught me how to love art, and I’m forever grateful to her.
I was so little when I began painting that there was simply not a time even in my childhood when I was not painting.
I’ve got an infinite number of diplomas from my childhood when I was traveling and exhibiting my works in post-soviet countries. When I was 14, I received a gold medal at the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy in Moscow.
Who had the biggest impact on your work early on in your career?
My mother’s works had the greatest impact. World-famous artists came next. From early on, I would educate myself with books about different painters, but I was most excited when I was eight and saw Van Gogh in Hermitage. Then there was Matisse, who showed me the plasticity of color and form; and Rufino Tamayo, a discovery for me to look at the art world completely differently than before. His paintings were not that impressive in the books but when I saw these gigantic works in person, that looked as if they were on fire, I was left speechless. I love many, many painters and it’s extremely difficult for me to name just one.
How important do you deem professional education in shaping an artist?
Painting is a style, a way of life, and I believe, no matter how well you study the techniques, if a painter is not in your inner world, you cannot be shaped as an artist. You could study a particular style, the materials, the history of art… But it will all be very far from painting.
A painter is constantly looking. This entails self-education, and self-change, with no end.
Of course, this is not to say that you shouldn’t get an art education. This is to say that a painter should determine themselves what kind of education, and what limits, are necessary for this particular stage of their work. These parameters change with experience.
Have you had to overcome any challenges in your pursuit of art?
Art is an inner state and a lifestyle for me. I’ve been encouraged to feel this way and to pursue it since I was little. So, I could not really see obstacles as such because it was and still is a very natural, meant-to-be process.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of living with a fellow artist?
I can safely say that we have complete understanding of each other, and are very compatible both as artists and as people.
It is very valuable for me to be living with an artist like Sandro, sharing the work processes, the arguing and reasoning about art. We never cross the line of “personal creative space,” and this enables us to live happily together.
What would you say about the contemporary Georgian art scene?
Georgia has many very talented artists. It is definitely possible for us to be very important on the world art scene, but there are certain steps that need to be taken for this to be achieved.
Active organizations and foundations have to exist that will take an interest in popularizing art and giving artists the comfort necessary to create.
Truly independent projects have to exist, and artists should be granted an opportunity to develop the art scene in the country and then present it to the world.
What is your biggest inspiration today?
My greatest inspiration has always been the line between the mystical and real, and interpreting it in my own way.
What do you think art’s main mission is?
There have been tons of arguments about this, leading to different points of views. I may not be original when I reveal to you mine: art, no matter its direction, be it theater, music, painting, should not leave people without emotion. Art should be able to change a person, even the slightest bit for the better; make them think and become the sharer of the artist’s secrets and feelings, make them see and give them the feeling of being extraordinary; make them see with a different visual and vision, the things they have seen before.
The energy and vision that an artist puts into their work compliments and impacts the creative perception abilities of the viewer. Thanks to art, a person is able to perceive more gradations to life. The world changes along with a person.
The modern art scene is ever-changing. What is the future of painting in this reality?
Everything changes: it’s a natural process. I can’t say that painting is slowly drifting away from the contemporary art world. Painting is just one of the instruments in the art space. I think the time will come when the art process will be a complete union of all the art instruments and it will become a collective process.
Do you have any advice for artists just starting up?
The years of the youth are too daring, maybe in some way even too confident. So, success and complete chaos are equally natural.
For the most part, the one who tries to not only analyse the past but also investigate the future, achieves success.
I would advise all young artists to think and reflect on where art comes from and where it deems to go.
What role do you think art auctions in general, and BI Auction in particular, play in promoting art?
Art auctions are quite popular events for collectors today. There’s much stimulus and heat to be found in the purchasing of a favorite artwork and popularizing a favorite artist.
BI Auction has completed many successful auctions already and it can objectively be proud of a big circle of art collectors.
About BI Auction ‘for ART’: BI Auction is the first Art Auction Company of Georgia, established in 2016. The company’s aim is to promote Georgian art and artists and enlarge the market. In four years, BI Auction ‘for ART’ has organized eight auctions and presented more than 450 paintings from 125 Georgian painters. In every auction, the collection is selected from among a thousand paintings from the well-known legendary artists of Georgia and also from promising young artists. For more information, please contact biauction1@gmail.com
By Nini Dakhundaridze