Marika Kandelaki

Marika was studying at the same art college (J.Nikoladze, Tbilisi) as myself, Tamar Bochorishvili, Ilona Keil Beruchashvili, Erna Dolmazova, Kristine Kakabadze and others. We studied in the same class, but never had any kind of contact.
As a first year collage student, I never initiated conversations with other students; the following years for me in "Nikoladze" were way more communicative, but by then (1996) Marika already left Georgia for the USA. We missed our opportunity to know each other then, but today via the internet we finally made contact.
Hallelujah to the internet!
Marika Kandelaki was born in 1980, Tbilisi, Georgia. She was born to an artistic family – her father a painter (Vladimir) and her grandfather a designer and cartoonist called Andro Kandelaki, who worked for "Niangi" (political satire magazine in Georgian language, from 1923). [And here I attach Andro Kandelakis book cover, and this is the first creation made by a man to be featured in this blog! Could not restrain myself]



In early 1989 Marikas father left for the US to have an exhibition there. His trip was followed by the collapse of the USSR and he incidentally remained in US.
Meanwhile Perestroika…
Marika described to me this period as probably the most notable in her life (apparently also to most of our generation) – in her own words: that period had hesitant optimism, a hope for a progressive update of the system with a competitive eye on the West…We all wanted to update our values to more glossy possibilities…
After Marika moved to Philadelphia she decided that the glam of fashion industry was the way to go. She was accepted to art school, Moore Collage of Art and Design, where she studied for almost a year, but did not like the place and so she moved to NYC and applied to Parsons School of design where she studied (and graduated in 2003) graphic design and fashion. She felt that both of the departments, especially the graphic department, were too commercial.
After graduation Marika started working for designer Elise Overland designing and hand-making clothes for various "Rock Stars" and celebrities: Steven Tyler (Aerosmith) was her turning point!
…I knew that this is as creative as Fashion world can get, meaning it not formally of course but the idea of it... that, when the bottom line is to sell there can be no truth. If the creativity is dictated by consumer...I mean…

That's where the world is now anyway... so I decided that I HAD to as I always should have done art.Since then I've been developing my vision and direction. And since I did not go through the "fine art" educational bureaucracy I kind of had to find my own path…
Marika started freelancing in the Fashion industry and doing art as sort of free enterprise, and in 2004 she joined the music band "Alex Delivery" providing vocals and percussion. In addition, she made paintings for their album "Star Destroyer" which came out in April.
Since then she has been focusing completely on her art.
From the series"Marble or Gold"