April 11, 2008
Anna Tsimintia
Georgia Today

Baia’s Gallery’ is an active and nosy exhibition space in Tbilisi, where new exhibitions occur almost every week, including solo, group or thematic shows. Mostly it is dedicated to presentation of modern Georgian arts and crafts.

Several times a year, with the initiative of the gallery owner, Mrs. Baia, group exhibitions of Georgian painters are held. The last grandiose exhibition of this kind was held in 2005 in TBC Bank exposition hall with the support of the Georgian Ministry of Culture, Monument Protection and Sport, where almost all representatives of modern Georgian painting were shown with several artworks under the general title “Fantastic Town”.

Ms. Baia told us of the two main trends that she likes to maintain in her gallery. One tendency is to display cultural heritage, and the other is to permanently seek out new names in contemporary painting. The process of getting access to artists whose work is held mostly in private collections and are not famous on the public level is very interesting and sometimes leads to great artists which have been never exhibited before.

Adequately to the strategy, the gallery space is divided into two parts: the second floor continuously exhibits works of 20th century artists. The list of artists presented on the second floor is always the same but the collection is supplemented almost every week with new works. The first floor mainly displays several thematic or personal exhibitions, but whenever the space becomes free, the gallery strives to exhibit those unknown artists’ pieces. Comparing these two exhibitions of around fifty pictures from different periods reveals many different elements, however, these exhibitions serve primarily as examples of synchronic development of Georgian painting, so in fact there are more similarities than differences. So as Baia concluded, these contemporary and traditional group exhibitions are enjoyable because of the liner process it expresses.

An exhibition of this kind is currently showing at the Baia Gallery. “20th Century Art Expo” and “21st Century Art Expo” are placed on two floors. Vano Meliashvili, Slomon Virsaladze, Irakli Gamrekeli, Nikoloz Ignatovi and others are presented as reflectors of 20th century painting while Edmond Kalandadze, Yuri Berishvili, Koka Ramishvili, Nino Feradze and a few other painters comprise the group of “21st Century Art Expo”.

The exposition is on display until April 30 every day (except Sunday) until 7pm. So if you are interested to see the evolution of Georgian painting you can visit Baia’s Galley on 10 Shardeni Street.