Nino Kipshidze
April – May, 2023
68 Razmadze Street
Traditionally, textile arts, with a history spanning across millennia and a truly diverse legacy of weaving, embroidery, tapestry, carpets, rugs and a variety of other decorative items, has always been dominated by women. The same was true of Georgia, where the unique combination of geography, climate and range of agricultural activities — with a particular focus on sheep-farming, led quite early on to the adoption of textile arts. Ancient Georgian textile artifacts, which are recognized for their impeccable use of natural dyes and unconventional color combinations, demonstrate superior quality of production and genuine craftsmanship.
It appears that in the past, locals were also familiar with the techniques of quilting, patchwork, and appliqué – attaching colorful scraps to simple fabrics for the purpose of adding liveliness to everyday items such as throws, blankets and wall hangings. Despite being abandoned, forgotten and stashed away in rusty crates for a protracted period of time, the rising popularity of quilting in the United States and Western Europe ended up rekindling local interest in this unique practice.
Nino Kipshidze’s artworks capture the eye with their extraordinary subtlety, resulting from the artist’s ability to channel the full pictorial potential of the fabrics used and add a peculiar touch of expressiveness to textile as a medium. Both figurative and abstract compositions follow the principles of easel painting, where appliqués and scraps of various textured and colored fabric resemble brush strokes against the velvet, silk or linen backgrounds. However, the ultimate source of this rush of emotion lies in the harmonious balance between the decorative tectonics of textile and the pictorial expressions of landscapes, still lives and figurative compositions.
Aside from her outstanding talent and impeccable taste, Nino Kipshidze, who also happens to be an art historian well-versed in the past events and art of her homeland, has a genuine grasp of those aspects of cultural heritage that have shaped Georgia’s global significance. This is the very identity that has been molded by the nation’s unique location at the proverbial crossroads of East and West over the course of centuries. It is precisely this impeccably balanced synthesis of the diverse cultural impulses of two distinct perspectives and local traditions that makes Nino Kipshidze’s textile artworks so alluring and multifarious. With their unique aesthetic spirit embracing both Oriental (Chinese, Japanese, and Islamic) and Western decorative and fine art practices, they do an incredible job of exuding age-old Georgian textile art traditions.
Nino Simonishvili