April 25, 2008
Ana Tsimintia
Georgia Today

Gia Revazishvili in Georgia and Gia Revazi abroad is a modern Georgian painter with diverse interests and configurations.

At the age of twenty two, Gia Revazishvili graduated from the Tbilisi Art Academy, from the faculty of industrial design. Since then he has worked as both a professional painter and a stage designer. He has executed several murals and wall designs working in the position of television designer. He has also illustrated various books and exhibited his work in galleries in Europe and the United States while working in primarily figurative themes transcended by his expression of hope, beauty, love and light.

“I want my works to express the complexity and intensity of life as I feel it. I would like my art to open people’s eyes to the textures and meaning of our lives,” Revazi says.

After figuring out different spheres and working in several dimensions, he finally turned to panting. Its’ already for ten years now that he works as an independent painter and experiments with interchanging styles. He even experiences a slight artistic fear: maybe the series of portraits as he makes them were already done, maybe this is not his invention? But everything is worth trying, he thinks, and so he keeps on to see what comes of it.

Painting everything without any particular obsession – still lives, landscapes, portraits, figurative pieces – he still follows one stylistic and ideal style: making his artificial world beautiful, positive and optimistic. His paintings tell small simple stories, which are visually easily perceivable. This is what makes his paintings different from the slightly depressive and dark pieces reflecting a major trend of modern Georgian painting. Fortunately he is not the only one breaking laws, but he is the one who was noticed by a Japanese curator. The chance encounter initiated an extensive cooperation that will last for some more years. Mr. Revazishvili’s artworks are quite appreciated in Japan and the author is a bit surprised, though he actually finds an explanation and simultaneously makes an unintended description of his paintings: “The Japanese don’t like complications, they don’t expect philosophical texts to be derived from paintings – all they want it simple and positive.” This is exactly what the Japanese see in Revazi’s paintings.

Although the painter is mostly busy with painting on his own, few of his works have appeared in local galleries. His works are a bit too innovative for the typical Georgian collectors, who habitually follow the rules based on academic principles, expecting something mysterious and unexplainable. Gia Revazishvili talks about the complexity of life, raises different topics, but his language is clear and accessible.

Material motivation being missing in Georgia is one more reason he rarely shows his paintings here. Why exhibit and sell art here at low, almost embarrassing prices, when people abroad like it, appreciate it and – not unimportantly – pay for it?

Art Gallery Line seems to buck the trend though: Gia Revazi’s paintings are on display there now; those interested can stop by 7 Bambis Rigi to check them out.