Tbilisi Art Fair
September, 2022
Baia Gallery is delighted to represent Gogi Aleksi-Meskhishvili and Vakho Bugadze at Tbilisi Art Fair.
Vakho Bugadze
Since the 1990s, Vakho Bugadze has been introducing into Georgian art a specific version of ‘body language’ in terms of new figurativeness. Being a professional sculptor, he works using various media. He is interested in the human body and its plastic language, and shares the feelings, emotions, conflicts, and discoveries that result from bodily contact. The particular expression that runs through his works is determined by the metamorphosis of ‘bodies’ under the influence of the universe – body language that manifests itself under the pressure of feelings and adventures. For the artist, the universe is an adventure of the body. He is interested in the culmination – a bodily condition that can cease and evolve into another formation. The works are made using diverse materials and techniques, including painting, graphic drawing, collage and photo editing. Their size is monumental, and his method is to produce them in series.
Gogi Aleksi-Meskhishvili
Gogi Aleksi-Meskhishvili’s artistic world is comprised of combinations of magical, phantasmagoric and carnival attributes, which strangely unite existential anxiety, the joy of life, a festive isolation and humanistic logic. Be it a scenographic project or any other topic or series, the artist is always interested in applying non-standard use of the technical capabilities of different media. As such, the objects are made of diverse materials and often lead viewers into the depths of the author’s visual memory, which is driven by the dominant power of a specific material. Sometimes they are made up of fragments of different textures and peculiar details. Using the context of the object, the mosaic weaving of color and material, and incorporating reflec¬tive and shining elements, the artist also encompasses, adapts, and transforms the surround¬ing space. This is a culturally outrageous act resulting from the desire to transform the space. That is, the artist’s mission and the purpose of his work focuses on expansion of the cultural space. For Aleksi-Meskhishvili, such a ‘game’ becomes the main method of presentation and a precondition for creativity.