From an artist talk with Alena Ahrens, Sojourner Gallery, New York, November 2025.
Latest Developments and Articles:
2025
Ongoing Curatorial Project: Rusudan Khizanishvili and Chucho Reyes: Sacrificial Rites, CAM Galerie, Mexico City, Mexico, November 22- January 25
Articles and interviews:
Louise Bonnet and Elizabeth King, “De Anima” at the Swiss Institute for Flash Art Magazine Fall Issue 352
November – Conversation between two sculptors, Millicent Young and Steve Wood for Hot Coffee Conversations
Interview with Abigail Klem Spector, Warren Spector, and Glenn Adamson on the Launch of the Spector Craft Prize for Hot Coffee Conversations
October – Interview with artist Saba Farhoudnia for Hot Coffee Conversations
Interview with artist and art activist Jamie Martinez and independent curator Emireth Herrera Valdés for Hot Coffee Conversations
Interview with artist and curator Derek Franklin for Hot Coffee Conversations
Interview with Georgian art historian Mzia Chikhradze for Hot Coffee Conversations
September – Interview with artist Emma Kohlmann for Hot Coffee Conversations
Interview with a reporter and researcher, Milana Mazaeva for Hot Coffee Conversations
August- Interview with gallerist Carolina Wheat, Elijah Wheat Showroom, Newburgh, NY, for Hot Coffee Conversations
August-Interview with multidisciplinary London-based artist Saelia Aparicio for Hot Coffee Conversations
August- Interview with Rick Kinsel, President of The Vilcek Foundation, New York, for Hot Coffee Conversations
July- Interview with Chus Martinez, Basel-based curator, academic, philosopher, and head of the Institute Art Gender Nature HGK Basel, FHNW, for Hot Coffee Conversations
July – Interview with Ivan Kolpakov, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Meduza and A.B., curators of the exhibition NO at Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien in Berlin for Hot Coffee Conversations
June – Interview with L.A.-based collector and curator Stefan Simchowitz for Spaghetti Boost
June – Postmodernism deconstructed life, and Rosemarie Trockel deconstructed control at Sprüth Magers and Gladstone, New York for Espresso Shots
June – New dynamic platform To the East and West of Tbilisi
June – Exhibition postcard: Alessandro Fogo at Lyles & King for Kennich Magazine
June – Review of On Education at Amant Foundation for Impulse Magazine
June- Interview with Annabel Keenan, New York-based art writer for Hot Coffee Conversations
June- Interview with Audrée Anid, curator, artist, and director of special projects at James Cohan Gallery for Hot Coffee Conversations
June – Interview with New York-based curator and educator Anna Khimasia & cultural advisor Emily Lutzker, producers of the International Arrivals Podcast for Hot Coffee Conversations
May- inclusion in the Best Art in the World, 20 Years of Noah Becker’s Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art, to be released in July 2025 by Anthem Press
May 2- Interview with Lisbon-based art critic and academic Luisa Soares de Oliveira for Hot Coffee Conversations
April 21-Interview with Gonzalo Garcia, Mexico City-based artist who paints intimacy and violence for Hot Coffee Conversations
April 14 –Two Must-See Shows in New York in April (Jack Whitten at MoMA featuring comments of curator Michelle Kuo of MoMA and David Caspar Friedrich at the Met) for Spaghetti Boost, available in English and Italian
April 7 – Interview with Echo He, Lynn Hai, and Iris Zhang from Fou Gallery, New York for Hot Coffee Conversations
March 2025 – Curatorial essay for Trust Issues, Berlin for Overstandard, Copenhagen-based independent magazine
March 2025 – Review of the dual presentation of Julius Eastman and Glenn Ligon “Evil Nigger” 52 Walker, New York for Flash Art Magazine Spring 2025 print issue
March 2025 – Interview with Rebecca Shaykin, Jewish Museum, New York on the exhibition “Draw Them in Paint Them Out Trenton Doyle Hancock and Philip Guston” for Spaghetti Boost, available in English and Italian
March 2025 – Interview with Megan McGibney Fears of an emboldened Putin rise among New Yorkers from Ukraine and other former Soviet republics for AmNY.
February 2025- Two Must-See Shows in New York in February for Spaghetti Boost, available in English and Italian
February 2025- Review Sabine Hornig’s The Matter of the Glazed Fence for Impulse Magazine, New York
February 2025- Artist talk with Berlin-based multidisciplinary artist Sabine Hornig for her solo exhibition The Matter of the Glazed Fence Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, Lisbon, on view through March 15
February 2025- Interview with Berto Santana, gallerist and founder of MAMA Projects, NY for Hot Coffee Conversations
January 2025 – United We Stand, Artists Against the Government for Le Quotidien de l’Art, France, available in French
January 2025 – Interview for Maurita Cardone‘s article about anti-government protests in Tbilisi for Il Giornale Dell’Arte, Italy, available in Italian
Recent curatorial project:
Saba Fardhoudnia: Forsaken with a Side of Pickles at Fou Gallery, New York, September 18-November 12, 2025
Farhoudnia continues to explore the complex relationship between human presence and natural forces as these opposing elements interact and unfold within urban and post-urban landscapes. Within this exhibition, Farhoudnia’s new paintings examine what endures when cultural landmarks are abandoned or overtaken by nature. On multilayered, sanded gesso canvases, she uses acrylic and alcoholic ink to mark points of no return, balancing weighty themes with humor and a light-hearted undertone. Her work suggests that traces of presence persist even when perspective is uncertain — after all, subtle reminders of life continue to appear across her imagined landscapes.
Trust Issues, a group show at Kornfeld Galerie,Berlin March 1- April 17, 2025. Presenting Saelia Aparicio, Gonzalo Garcia, and Rusudan Khizanishvili.
A secret sadness lurks behind the twenty-first-century’s forced smile.
-Mark Fisher
The time we live in marks our trust in physical freedom and in the freedom of thought essential; the proliferation of fake news has turned trust into a precious commodity. Can we completely believe algorithms, templates, chat GPT interactions, prejudices, and preconceptions? How could we stop being vulnerable to preprogrammed biases and refrain from happily consuming them? London-based multidisciplinary artist Saelia Aparicio, Mexico-based painter Gonzalo Garcia, and Tbilisi-based painter Rusudan Khizanishvili take up issues of vulnerability, trust, and power while foregrounding their distinct visual modes of expression. Aparicio’s anthropomorphic wood sculptures, Garcia’s oil paintings on linen that are gentle and brutal at the same time, and Khizanishvili’s strong and symbolic colors engage in a visual discourse. The three transgressive artists want to wake us up through strong visual statements that are sometimes intentionally ambiguous or ironic, sometimes grounded in specific political events such as the anti-government protests in Georgia in 2024-2025 or Mexico’s student protests in the 1960s.
Interview of Rusudan Khizanishvili by Maja Gaertz for Monopol Magazin, Berlin
Review by Rafael Sergi and Hans Krestel, White Hot Magazine, New York
Curatorial essay published in Overstandard, Denmark
Recording of the conversation with Saelia Aparicio, February 27, 2025
Recording of the artist talk with Gonzalo Garcia and Rusudan Khizanishvili at Kornfeld Galerie, February 28, 2025
2024
December 2024- Interview with Clémence Polés, founder of passerby magazine for Hot Coffee Conversations
December 2024 – Two Must-See Shows in New York in December for Spaghetti Boost, available in English and Italian
December 2024 – Postcard from Arkansas: American Sunrise at the Crystal Bridges Museum review for White Hot Magazine
December 2024 – Review of Art Basel Miami Beach 2024 for Spaghetti Boost, available in English and Italian
December 2024- Interview with physicist Jon Chkareuli for Hot Coffee Conversations
November 2024 – Interview with writer Seph Rodney on the show “Get in the Game: Sports, Art, Culture,” he just co-curated at SFMOMA for Hot Coffee Conversations
November 2024 – Interview with Dr.Andrea Andersson from the Rivers Institute for Contemporary Art & Thought, and Manuela Moscoso, CARA’s Executive and Artistic Director discussing the excellent career survey of Tina Girouard for Hot Coffee Conversations
October 10-December 22,2024 – Forces of Change and Memory: Helia Chitsazan, a solo show curated at Fou Gallery, New York (Interview with Helia Chitsazan for Overstandard Magazine, Denmark / Forgive My Intrusion: A Review of Helia Chitsazan’s Forces of Change and Memory by Marquez Woods for White Hot Magazine)
October 2024 – What Does It Take to Be a Successful Gallerist in Seoul: Interview with Yeajin Lee, Seojung Art for Spaghetti Boost (in Italian and English)
September 2024- Adriana Farmiga’s Index: An Exploration of Digital Devaluation for Testudo Art
September 2024 – What Does It Take To Reinvent Art Fair? Interview with Margot Samel and Olga Temnikova of Esther Art Fair, New York for Spaghetti Boost (in Italian and English)
August 2024- Is Art System Failing? speculative essay for Spaghetti Boost (in Italian and English)
July 2024- Interview with Deborah Kass for Hot Coffee Conversations
June 2024 – E-flux Criticism Review Patterns of (In)Security, Die Möglichkeit einer Insel, Berlin.
June 2024 Flash Art Magazine online Review Tolia Astakhishvili “between father and mother” SculptureCenter / New York
June 2, 2024- Artist talk, Sabine Hornig and Tamuna Chabashvili, Patterns of (In)Security II, Die Möglichkeit einer Insel, Berlin.
April 2024-Essay for Sascha Mallon exhibition, Kentler International Drawing Space.
April 2024 – Testudo, Invisible Souls of Beau Dick at Andrew Kreps Gallery
April 1 and 2, 2024 Lecture The Individual and the Social: Transforming How Women Were Presented Throughout the XX Century in Eastern European Art at The Canopy Program of NYC Crit Club.
March 20, 2024 Lecture Colonialism Masquerading as Multiculturalism: Grand Socialist Project in Georgia as Seen Through the Lenses of Visual Art in XX Century, Ekard Artist-in-Residence Program, Bucknell University, Pennsylvania.
March 2024 Hit Me with the Best Shot, joint curatorial project, Pen & Brush, New York, March 7- April 20
February 2024 Launch of new platform for in-depth conversations Hot Coffee Conversations.
February 2024 Whitehot Magazine Angst Revisited: Cathleen Clarke at Margot Samel, NY
January 2024 Moderator of artist talk between Rachel Youn and Sarah Slappey on Restraint at Sargent’s Daughters, New York
January 2024 Development, curation, and writing RobinGlassman.org
2023
December 2023 ArteFuse Top picks from Art Basel Miami 2023
November 2023 Artforum Critics Pick: Asif Mian at Management, New York
November 2023 XIBT Magazine, Berlin #16 Hot Coffee with New York-based curators Andi Soós and Isi Litke
November 2023 XIBT Magazine, Berlin #15 Hot Coffee with Turkish-American artist Tulu Bayar
November 2023 JANE Magazine Australia, Issue#14 On a Few Aspects of Contemporary Self-Portrature
November 2023 Curatorial essay for exhibition Tulu Bayar Twine at Amos Eno Gallery, NY
October 2023 XIBT Magazine, Berlin #4 Digital Art Week Asia: Interview with curator Warren Wee and eBoy
October 2023 XIBT Magazine, Berlin #14 Hot Coffee with Tbilisi-based Artists Mariam Natroshvili and Detu Jincharadze on Museum of Repressed Writers in Tbilisi
October 2023 Sculpture Magazine review Millicent Young at merge
September 2023 Hyperallergic How a Billionaire Bought an Ecosystem
September 2023 Catalogue essay for exhibition catalogue Rusudan Khizanishvili: Velvet Armor at Seojung Art gallery, Seoul, South Korea (in collaboration with Kornfeld Galerie, Berlin)
September 2023 Press release for exhibition Vati Davitashvili: Telavian Thistle at LC Queisser, Tbilisi, Georgia
August 2023 XIBT Magazine, Berlin Hot Coffee with an Artist: Curator Nairi Khatchadourian and artist Davit Kochunts
July 2023 XIBT Magazine, Berlin Hot Coffee with an Artist:Tamar Nadiradze
July 2023 XIBT Magazine, Berlin Hot Coffee with an Artist: Lia Bagrationi
July 2023 MoMa, New York Fighting the Authoritarian Machine from the Inside: Tamar Abakelia and Natela Iankoshvili
June 2023 White Hot Magazine Interview with Lindsay Catherine Harris, New Co-Director of Recess Art, Brooklyn
June 2023 XIBT Magazine, Berlin Hot Coffee with an Artist: Daniel Giordano
May 2023 White Hot Magazine Interview with curator and community activist Vida Sabbaghi
May 2023 White Hot Magazine Review Bob Thompson at 52 Walker
April 2023 XIBT Magazine, Berlin Hot Coffee with an Artist: Devra Fox
March 2023 Berlin Art Link ‘Just Above Midtown’ Revisited at MoMa- A Model to Replicate
March 2023 Flash Art Magazine Gordon Matta-Clark & Pope. L “Impossible Failures” 52 Walker, New York
February 2023 XIBT Magazine, Berlin Hot Coffee with an Artist: Sebastian Maas
January 2023 White Hot Magazine Probing Gravity: Interview with Rachel Mica Weiss
January 2023 Hyperallergic On the Limits of Healing: Exhibition at Gropius Bau, Berlin
January 2023 XIBT Magazine, Berlin Hot Coffee with an Artist: Oleksiy Sai
2022
December 2022 XIBT Magazine, Berlin Digital Art Week 2022 in Tokyo: Interview with Yoichiro Kurata and Warren Wee
December 2022 XIBT Magazine, Berlin Hot Coffee with an Artist: Brandon Tellez
December 2022 XIBT Magazine, Berlin Hot Coffee with an Artist: Marc Andre
November 2022 Brooklyn Rail, New York Culture as Strategy of Survival: Imperial Erasure of Culture in the Eastern European Context
November 2022 XIBT Magazine, Berlin Hot Coffee with an Artist: Rusudan Khizanishvili
October 2022 XIBT Magazine, Berlin Hot Coffee with an Artist: LAW
October 2022 JANE Magazine, Australia Performance As Activism from Tbilisi to Berlin (print-only, PDF on request)
October 2022 XIBT Magazine, Berlin Vessel for Spirits: Miwa Komatsu in conversation with Nina Mdivani
September 2022 Curatorial text for Aleksandra Sidor‘s show Unreliable Narrator at Eastcontemporary, Milan, Italy
September 2022 JANE Magazine, PRIVEÈ Fourth chapter Interview with Rusudan Khizanishvili: Landscape Inside Her Head
August 2022 Hyperallergic Ukrainian Women Artists Upend the Male-Centered War Narrative
July 2022 JANE Magazine, PRIVEÈ Second chapter– Essay and interview with Samira Abbassy: The Individual Becomes Universal
July 2022. Issue 3/2022 XIBT Magazine of Contemporary Art, Berlin– As Expected. The Whitney Biennial 2022.
June 2022 The White Hot Magazine, New York– The Shrink and the Patient Are One and The Same: Louise Bourgeois Paintings at the Met
May 2022 The Art Newspaper – How Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Will Reshape the Eastern European Cultural Scene
May 2022 JANE Magazine Australia – Fighting for Ukrainian Independence Through Art (print-only, PDF on request)
March 2022 The Brooklyn Rail – Russian Invasion of Ukraine: Oral History in Seven Voices
ABOUT NINA MDIVANI :
I am Tbilisi-born and New York-based curator, writer and researcher. My undergraduate degrees are from Tbilisi State University in International Relations, Mount Holyoke College, both in International Relations and Gender Studies; Master of Arts in Museum Studies from the City University of New York. My previous working experience includes United Nations, Columbia University as well as various nongovernmental organizations, with focus on political or sociological research.
Over the last five years I have been invited to participate in various projects with the focus on contemporary painting and photography, women artists, gender imbalance. My first book, “King is Female,” telling the story of three acclaimed female Georgian artists and their journey inside the male-dominated world of societal and artistic traditions was published by Wienand Verlag in Berlin, October 2018 in conjunction with Kornfeld Gallery, Berlin and launched at the Frankfurt Book Fair. You can find more information about the book in My Books section of this website.
From March 2019 to May 2020 I have been selected and worked as Curator-in-Residence at Kunstraum, Brooklyn-based art hub that serves as a multidisciplinary platform for daring and envelope-pushing curatorial initiatives. As a resident curator I worked on putting together exhibitions as well as overseeing additional programming for this alternative space. My residency culminated in the two-part exhibition New York Meets Tbilisi: Defining Otherness that cumulatively presented nine Georgian and five New York-based artists in visual dialogue with each other. Exploring phenomenon of Otherness in various aspects through artworks and finding correspondences as well as contrasts was challenging and exciting. This exhibition project was selected by New York Foundation of the Arts (NYFA) for fiscal sponsorship.
Among my publications: “Anna Valdez: Natural Curiosity” (Paragon Books, Berkeley, CA 2019), “Lechaki: Photography of Daro Sulakauri” (ERTI Gallery, Georgia 2018), “The Science, Religion, and Culture of Georgia A Concise and Illustrated History” (NOVA Science Publishing, New York 2017). Previous articles have been published in Artforum, Berlin Art Link, e-flux, East European Film Bulletin, Flash Art Magazine, Hot Coffee Conversations, Hyperallergic, Indigo Magazine Tbilisi, JANE Magazine Australia, Impulse Magazine, Le Quotidien de l’Art, post.MoMA, NERO Editions Italy, Overstandard, Spaghetti Boost, The Art Newspaper, The Brooklyn Rail, White Hot Magazine, and others.
My articles have been published in Flash Art Magazine, Hyperallergic, The Art Newspaper, The Brooklyn Rail, JANE Magazine Australia, NERO Editions Italy, White Hot Magazine of Contemporary Art, Arte Fuse, XIBT Magazine of Contemporary Art Berlin, Arte & Lusso Dubai, East European Film Bulletin Berlin, Coeur Et Art Berlin, Art Spiel New York, Indigo Magazine Tbilisi, Heinrich Boell Foundation South Caucasus blog.
My current and ongoing focus as a researcher and curator is discerning and studying alternative narratives within dominant cultures. My research involves intersection of the art history, museum studies, critical theory and decolonization studies. You can see my recent reviews, essays, and articles in My Articles section of the website and see installation photos from exhibitions I have curated in Curatorial section.
CURATED PROJECTS & EXHIBITIONS:
April 2022 Limited time representation of Galerie Kornfeld, Berlin at Expo Chicago
March-April 2022 Co-curator Impact: Artists in Support of Ukrainian Refugees. Uniting 150 artists, hosted by Artsy in cultural partnership with the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago.
January 2020-February 2022 Curator, Public Digital Art Fund, Moscow, LA. Resigned in support of Ukraine at the time of the Russian invasion.
January 2021-January 2022 Twelve video profiles of Georgian Female Artists available in English on Youtube (also in the corresponding section of this website), collaboration with The Georgian Association in the USA.
October 2021 The Border Project Space, Brooklyn Theater of the Absurd
June 2021 Kimpton La Peer Hotel, Los Angeles Social Experiment
May 2021 Ivy Brown Gallery, New York Defied Logic
March 2021 NARS Foundation, Brooklyn This Is Not My Tree, 14 artists on immigration
November 2020 Solo exhibition of Rusudan Khizanishvili at 68 Projects, Berlin Rooms & Beings
August 2020 Digital group project in collaboration with Joshua Goode, director of The Carillon Gallery on Tarrant County College South Campus 7 Days 7 Women 7 Narratives
May 2020 Ria Keburia Foundation, Georgia In a Room with a Wild Coyote (postponed)
March 2020 Kunstraum, Brooklyn New York Meets Tbilisi: Defining Otherness Part II
January 2020 Assembly Room, New York New York Meets Tbilisi: Defining Otherness Part I
September 2018 Kunstverein Villa Wessel, Iserlohn, Germany — King is Female: 3+1 (Kvesitadze, Khizanishvili, Grigalashvil, Iankoshvili)
June 2018 MoMa Tbilisi, Georgia –Natela Iankoshvili Centennial Exhibition, co-curated with Mamuka Bliadze
April 2018 Mark Rothko Foundation, Daugavpils, Latvia- Rusudan Khizanishvili: Conversion Device
January 2018 Tbilisi Museum of Literature, Georgia – Rusudan Khizanishvili: Conversion Device
VISITING CRITIC/JUROR:
February 2023 – New member jury, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, NY
June 2022– Studio visitor, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, NY
March 2022-Juror for 2022 New Work panel, Bronx Council on the Arts, NY
May 2021-Studio visitor, Residency Unlimited, Brooklyn, NY
March 2021-Juror for 2021 Border Project space open call, Brooklyn,NY
February 2021—Juror for 2021 New Work panel, Bronx Council on the Arts, NY
August 2020– Visiting critic for Art Omi artist residency program, New Ghent, NY
June 2020 – Visiting critic, International Center of Photography, New York, NY
May 2020—Juror/concept creator for COVID-19 grant initiative in partnership with Ria Keburia Foundation, Tbilisi, Georgia
February 2020—Juror for 2020 New Work, Bronx Council on the Arts, NY
June 2019 – Visiting critic, International Center of Photography, New York, NY
March 2019-Juror, exhibition open call, Kunstraum, Brooklyn,NY
February 2019 – Studio visitor, NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, NY
PANELS AND CURATORIAL EVENTS:
January 2023- 30 Years of History: Panel of Georgian Association Presidents Georgian Association in the USA
November 2022- Lecture Culture as a Strategy for Survival Ria Keburia Foundation Residency Program, Georgia
May 2022-Lecture Georgian Female Artists: Look Back and Across. Bristol Tbilisi Association.
April 2022-Moderator Feminism in XXI century. Four artists: Julia Kissina (Berlin), Kati Vilim (Hungary), Hayoon Jay Lee (Korea), Ajuan Song (China). Lichtundfire Gallery, Lower East Side.
January 2022-Panel on Art Criticism with William Corwin, Jonathan Goodman, and Laura Horne Lichtundfire Gallery, Lower East Side.
November 2021-Artistk talk with Shiri Mordechay and Roberto Clemente De Leon Theater of the Absurd,The Border Project Space, Brooklyn.
June 2021-Panelist, Uprootedness & Hybridity: Researching Eastern-European Intergenerational Trauma in the Arts and Theatre, Counterpoint Arts as part of UK Refugee Week 2021
April 2021-Panel moderator, Connecting Ecosystem to Environment and Notions of Belonging
This is Not My Tree, NARS Foundation, Brooklyn.
March 2020-Panel moderator, Eastern European Art & the Age of Extremity, New York Meets Tbilisi: Defining Otherness Part II,Kunstraum LLC, Brooklyn.
February 2020– Artist talk with J.Cerqueira Leite, New York Meets Tbilisi: Defining Otherness Part I,Assembly Room
December 2019– Curatorial Walk-through, Cultural Focus Group, Kunstraum LLC, Brooklyn
October 2019– Panel moderator, The Lonely Eclipse, Kunstraum LLC, Brooklyn
October 2019-Artist talk with Anna Valdez, Natural Curiosity, Hashimoto Contemporary, NY
May 2019– Curatorial Walk-through, Serenity Later, Kunstraum LLC, Brooklyn
September 2018-Opening Speech King is Female: 3+1, Iserlohn, Germany
June 2018– Opening Speech Natela Iankoshvili Centennial Exhibition
TEACHING:
December 2021- Lecture Showcasing Women Artists in New York Art Business Academy, Kiev, Ukraine
March 2021 – 5-day remote seminar How to Read/Write About Art Ria Keburia Residency
GRANTS/AWARDS:
2020-NARS Foundation exhibition open call winner, Brooklyn
2019—New York Foundation for the Arts, Fiscal sponsorship for exhibition project “New York Meets Tbilisi: Defining Otherness”
2019-Assembly Room exhibition open call winner, NY
2019-Kunstraum, Brooklyn exhibition open call winner
2003-2006—Mount Holyoke College, scholarship for international students
Contact
Email: nina@ninamdivani.com
Instagram: @ninamdivani
ninamdivani.com 