Guram Shavdia
War of Values, 2014
Oil on canvas
200 x 145 cm
Soldier of Freedom, 2014
Oil on canvas
170 x 140 cm
Man with Power, 2019
Oil on canvas
175 x 145 cm
These three paintings represent different series and were painted in 2014-2019. When put together they represent a somewhat humorous take on existing archetypal images of man – a soldier that resembles a tin soldier figurine, a circus showman with a duck floater around his waist and a romanticized image of a headless figure dressed in Georgian national dress.
Guram Shavdia (born in 1988) graduated from Iakob Nikoladze Art School (2007) and Düsseldorf Art Academy (2014) as Andreas Schultze’s master student. He participated in solo exhibitions at the Christuskirche (Leverkusen, 2019), Upstairs Gallery (Oldenburg, 2012) and group exhibitions Köln Biennial New Talents (2014), Touch Georgia – Contemporary Artists from Georgia (DEG, Köln, 2013), Das ist alles deine Schulze (Philara, Düsseldorf, 2013), Threadneedle Prize Exhibition (London, 2012), Geranien, Turm 06 (Duisburg, 2012).