Board member
Past Partnerships
September 2020
Proud to host 100 Artists for the Orchid Foundation virtual fundraiser to raise a college scholarship fund for underserved girls. Excited to put together virtual resources with wonderful U.S.-based art industry professionals to empower young women. Bidding on wonderful artworks will start September 9- September 13,2020 midnight, but you are very welcome to register or donate in advance of our auction on VU website.
Artnet pick, September 7,202
May 2020
Collaboration with Georgia-based Ria Keburia Foundation on an initiative for grants and awards in Support of Georgia-based artists in the time of the ongoing global pandemic. We have received and reviewed over sixty proposals in various disciplines (painting, sculpture, textile art or conceptual project) directly created in response to the COVID-19 experience.
Three artists have received monetary awards in following mediums:
VIDEO ART
Mariam Natroshvili & Detu Jincharadze, State of Emergency
“The indefinite present, called the state of emergency, began about two months ago, and who knows how long it will last.The main signs of a new reality, the main characteristics, are isolation and distance. We don’t know the results yet. We have a vague present that, like an abandoned game, is frozen and endless.”State of Emergency” is a deserted game, a video game as well as 3D installation. It’s an excerpt from the abandoned game we live in now.The lines from this diary are thoughts accumulated over the course of a month.The city has become like time, a labyrinth that is endless and uncertain.”
PHOTOGRAPHY
Sofi Mdivnishvili, series Qualia
“Photos included were taken from the day when lockdown started in Tbilisi. I wanted to express my inner sound in this situation with my photos to shoot them in the same style but to show fear, loneliness, anxiety and self-exploration with a body language. Every body is a new story for me, with its own lines and marks and I always try to read them correctly to retell these stories to others with the help of photography.So my pictures are the result of my first expression about their bodies. But everyone can see different emotions, colors, stories in these body parts.”
PAINTING
Teona Yamanidze, series Temporary Shelter
“This s an ongoing project that I have started during the pandemic. I am trying to refer to the current state of mind as I have found myself locked in my Tbilisi apartment. Though most of the images may represent my surrounding now I have decided to add the fictional component to what is seen inside the rooms we live in. Some of the images are of my room, apartment and creatures I live with and some are still images from my favourite films that refer to isolation and exile. It is up to the viewer to decide what is real or not.”
In addition, eight artists have been selected for Ria Keburia Residency Program Summer session at Ambassador Kachreti Resort.
Anastasia Lebanidze
Giorgi Shengelia
Merabo Lomadze
Nina Parulava
Olya Dubatova
OTKYDASMEX
Sopho Mamaladze
Sopho Tsintsadze
ninamdivani.com 