Promising Young Georgian Artist Gets Nili Gallery Exhibition
Georgian artist Irakli Nakudaidze’s digital fusion exhibition known as Surreal Mind is currently on display at a new conceptual art gallery in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi.
The T.G. Nili Art Space Gallery is a relatively new venue that works mainly with art prints.
“In general, prints are a limited reproduction of an artistic work. We see our mission as being able to make high art accessible to customers and especially younger people,” the gallery’s director, Alexander Diasamidze said.
“We have about 15 artists collaborating with the gallery now, but what distinguishes us from all of the others in Tbilisi is that we focus on one exhibition per artist for a fixed period,” he added.
Nakudaidze, a graduate of the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, works on digital fusion with photographic images reproduced on different types of fabric.
Surreal Mind is his first individual exhibition. GEORGIA TODAY met the young artist to find out more.
Irakli, tell us how you started and why you opted to combine photography and print?
I started making prints when I was studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Tbilisi. It’s been three years now. The Academy showed me in which direction to move…. Prints and collages are new to Georgia, but they are very popular abroad. Working with prints helps me express myself…to say what bothers and worries me. As a medium, it gives me the ability to create a picture of the atmosphere around me as it is or as I would like it to be.
How did the idea for this exhibition come about?
T.G. Nili Gallery found me on Facebook. The gallery’s entire concept is directly connected to me since they are interested in artists who work in digital mediums. We later met and decided to go ahead with an exhibition. I couldn’t have done it without their support.
What was the inspiration behind Surreal Mind?
To a large extent, it was personal. I think an individual is living in an imaginative, surreal world. One day, I was feeling lonely, and I made a selfie with a coffee cup full of dry chamomile. It somehow helped me. It had a therapeutic effect so I decided to do another photo, and then did more. My emotions and feelings and the environment around me, all of it was inspirational.
What do you think needs to be done to promote Georgian artists better abroad?
I think that we (Georgian) have to focus on our novelty and be more open- minded in the way we approach art. We have to try to create something new. But it’s all very individual, and every artist has their way of doing things. Personally, I would love to obtain a Masters Degree from a foreign university. It is important to discover new places and have new experiences that will inspire my work in the future.
By Nino Gugunishvili
Edited by Nicholas Waller