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Contemporary Art Archive - Tbilisi

Archive of Academic Writings

2021 Edition of the Project is supported by the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Youth of Georgia

The Collector - Davit Kukhalashvili

2020

Davit Kukhalashvili's paintings contain motifs of surrealism, pop art, funk art, the synthesis of which conveys satirical content. He is the author of critical and ambiguous paintings, where there is an illusion of benevolence at first glance, which is won over by vivid colors and witty silhouettes and soon disappears when the viewer begins to observe and discover an aggressive, destructive, and a sharply critical narrative.

His series of expectations and their accompanying frustrations is conveyed in an original visual match - a chaos of infinitely cut stairs and a contrasting tab with hints of anti-reality, rows of bare backs of anonymous masses stacked on top of each other, as well as a contrasting shot with a school desk. 

Infantilism and its dire consequences on the subject of ecology are seen as a surreal paradox in the images, where in a beautiful landscape the table tennis construction is unceremoniously excavated, or a long feast is spread out. The central work of the exhibition is THE COLLECTOR, as well as the ambiguous term, which is primarily associated with the field of art, but at the same time shows its other meanings, where the living exhibits of the collection are the victim or the characters participating in the game. 

Davit Kukhalashvili is a member of the ON/ OFF group and shares his interest in criticizing the system with other members of the group. The artists of this group choose the expressive figurativeness created with clear, colorful, animated motifs for the relationship with the audience, and with a fun approach convey the problems of the existential vacuum, domination of the pursuit of power and problematics of commercialization.

Text: Khatuna Khabuliani