Still life is life

Still life has a long, not always great but interesting history: from ancient Egyptian tombs and Roman wall paintings till expressionism and photorealism.

In the "Academic system" in Georgia still life seems to be the main subject; the study program constantly glorifies the artificial setting, the composition of three dimensional elements, harmony of dead objects and the symbolism in-between the landscape and occasional models.

One of my memories from the Nikoladze Art College is assembling the still life setting in the class. Us students had to bring different objects from home (mostly from the kitchen, to produce an allegorical atmosphere), set them in the middle of the class and draw and/or paint them within two weeks, in hopes of understanding the "composition" and the perspective between the different apples. Sometimes we had to find something do while we waited for Nely, our favorite model.

One of my classmates from college and a dear friend, Tamo (Tamar Botchorishvili from Tbilisi, who really helps me to keep this blog updated) put me in touch with two young and enthusiastic artists, Tutu and Tinatin; they are working in the art field and both of them have a tendency to work in oil painting techniques and still life iconography. I chose to show some of their still life works not just for nostalgic memories from Nikoladze, but of course to show their own talents. I hope that in the future we will show more works by Tutu and Tinatin.

Tutu Kiladze: "Once more still life"

Tinatin Chkhikvishvili: "Apples"

Tutu Kiladze (1980) and Tinatin Chkhikvishvili (1980) graduated from Tbilisi State Academy of Art, department of fine art. They participate in different exhibitions in different galleries and exhibition halls in Tbilisi (Qarvasla, Artists' house, N-Gallery etc') and In 2003 they were part of the Art Villa Garikula (residence which promotes and hosts contemporary art, culture festivals and meetings in Kaspi region).

Sophia Cherkezishvili

"One letter" Installation/1997
"Stone" Object/cushion/1998
"Iron words" 1998

Sophia's works are like overloaded personal diaries where we could surmise from poetic images a present feministic voice. The poetic transformation converts one medium into another and produces aesthetic forms, messages and a never-ending inspiration.
In 1990 Sophia graduated from J.Nikoladze Art College and in 1994 from the Tbilisi State Academy of Art. For four years (1994-1998) she studied painting and drawing at Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, then she returned to Georgia and started working actively in the art field in Tbilisi– from teaching at Nikoladze to various exhibitions and projects such as: Open Society Institute, Budapest – “Digital Story”; Gender and Politics in the South Caucasus -“One minute is quite enough to see all life”; Project supported by Mama Cash for Women (The Netherlands) – “Feminine Fantasies”; “Human rights are the part of Georgian Culture” Project supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the IRIS Centre at the University of Maryland; “Why does the grass grow on my head”, The History Museum Tbilisi Georgia and more.

"Nine hours of her life" Installation/1999
"Walking without talking" Wax/1999

Since 2000 Sophia is one of the members of the International Federation of Artists.
I would like to thank Alexandra Matsatso Gabunia (art critic, curator and one of the founders of the Contemporary Art Club) for making this post happen.