Levan Mindiashvili + Uta Bekaia
May 25th, 2016 – July 10th, 2016
Opening Reception: Wednesday, May 25th, 7pm-9pm
Levan Mindiashvili is a Georgian-born, Brooklyn-based visual artist primarily interested in exploring the complex relationships between communal and private spaces. This, Mindiashvili’s second major exhibition at The Lodge Gallery, features works from his current ongoing project entitled “Unintended Archeology of (un)Place” and expands upon his paintings through installation and sculptural objects. Mindiashvili’s paintings – rigorously rendered in several layers of acrylic paint and gel medium – mimic vintage, pixelated photography and questions our perception of the past and ‘taught’ history. While paintings keep ‘loyalty’ to their source material (the artist’s own snapshots from travels to his native Georgia), the sculptures, on the other hand, are summarized images of experiences and memories from the many places he has lived. Some details might allude to a particular aparment in Brooklyn or a house in Tbilisi, but they are merely hermetic remnants of what once might have been a home. Rendered in pigmented plaster, they visually and superficially mimic a steady, permanent concrete, yet the fragility of his chosen material outlines the temporal and ephemeral nature of the notions of ‘place’ and ‘home’ in today’s society.
This exhibition is created in collaboration with Uta Bekaia. Both artists share same cultural background, and furthermore, the same concerns regarding identity and historical memory, but they employ two different starting points in their practice. While Mindiashvili is concerned with the intellectual knowledge and limitations imposed by society and culture, Bekaia is interested in genetical, biological memory.
The artists have also conceived a performance entitled If You Lived Here You Would Be Home Now, which will be performed by Japanese/American butoh dancer Azumi Oe on the day of the opening. The resulting residual remnants of the performance piece will become part of the installation, and remain on view for the run of the show.
Levan Mindiashvili received his BFA in sculpture from Tbilisi State Academy of Arts and realized post-graduate studies in Crossed Media Arts at The National University of Arts of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Among his awards should be mentioned Commission Grant for Public Art Projects from National Endowments for Arts, New York 2014 and Emerging Artist of 2011, Movistar Arte Jóven, 2011 Buenos Aires, Argentina. His work has been included in recent group exhibitions at Tartu Art Museum, Estonia; Brooklyn; Hathaway David Contemporary, Atlanta; ODETTA, Brooklyn; RichMix, London; Georgian National Museum, Tbilisi; Recent solo exhibitions include “Studies For Unintended Archeology”, The Vazquez Building, Brooklyn; “Borderlines”, The Lodge Gallery, New York; “Urban Identities”, Kunstraub99, Cologne.
Uta Bekaia Georgian Born, New York based multimedia artist. He had studied Industrial Design at Tbilisi Mtsire Academy. He debuted as an artist at AMA (Avant-Guard Fashion Assembly) with a sculptural performance. He creates multimedia performances and installations inhabited with wearable sculptures, exploring his historical cultural background, genetical codes and cycles of the universe. His works were included in Istanbul 14th Biennial and Kiev 2nd Biennial. He currently presented performance pieces “Vestiphobia”, Ideal Glass, New York; “Fua Sia Tata Sia”, The Movement Theater, Tbilisi; and Tbilisi City Parade “Berikaoba”.
