Germany-based Georgian artist Irakli Bugiani hosts first Tbilisi display

A Tbilisi museum is inviting city dwellers to enjoy the first-ever personal exhibition of works by Germany-based Georgian artist Irakli Bugiani in Georgia's capital.

From October 6-23, the Dimitri Shevardnadze National Gallery will host the exhibition To See a World in a Grain of Sand, which presents some of Bugiani’s "pivotal works" of his abstract creative style.

The exhibition is part of an initiative by the Project ArtBeat collaboration to promote contemporary artists from Georgia and the Caucasus region. The paintings selected for the display were curated by multimedia artist Levan Mindiashvili.

Irakli Bugiani's 2015 work 'Light, Spirit, Dynamic II'. Photo from www.projectartbeat.com.

A release from the Georgian National Museum said the collection of paintings included in the exhibition were chosen to "reveal the artist’s attempts to accentuate unknown, mystical aspects of the universe".

Born in Tbilisi but based in Germany, Bugiani mainly works in painting. He also frequently uses varying media and diverse context to create pieces that feature "interiors and exteriors of architecture empty of human presence", said Project ArtBeat in its artist profile of Bugiani.

[Bugiani] deliberately leaves fragments of working process on the canvas as if the artworks are endless.  The impressionistic 'unfinished' seascapes, washed out portraits and collages of fragmented imagery compose the exploration into the boundaries of fiction and historical fact of one's memory.”

'Karadeniz Blues', a 2015 painting by Irakli Bugiani. Photo from www.projectartbeat.com.

The Georgian painter's work has also been reviewed by art critic Kate Emery, who referred to the "dragging strokes quietly pulling the image in and out of focus" that "allude to the passage of time, the inclusion of movement, and the critical element of human perception."

Bugiani is a graduate of the University of Dusseldorf and Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe, Germany.

This will be his first solo exhibition in Tbilisi however his works have featured in personal and group exhibitions including Weltkunstzimmer, Hans-Peter-Zimmer Foundation, Dusseldorf, Germany in 2015, RichMix, London, the United Kingdom in 2015 and Crossing the boundaries, AT388, Rotterdam, the Netherlands in 2014.

Learn more about Irakli Bugiani here.