Gia Edzgveradze: Ultra Modern Nihilism

17. December, 1998 – 31. January, 1999
When
17. December, 1998 – 31. January, 1999

Gia Edzgveradze is a Düsseldorf based Georgian artist who has exhibited with much success in several venues in Western Europe, including the last Venice Biennale.
He creates his powerful but in the same time very ironic installations from plants, vegetables, everyday objects and black-and-white paintings where he uses lines, contours or texts only. The humour derives from formal allusions as well as from his attitude of putting the objects into strange contexts. The different objects and media come together into a coherent artwork. He criticises our stereotypes in his vulgar inscriptions and in his video works by questioning those things, which are accepted by all of us despite of the fact that nobody understands them, but it is more convenient this way.
His works are sometimes brutal, emotionally moving or even funny but always honest.
We are presenting his latest, site-specific installation, which incorporates some of his paintings from the recent years as well as new works and wall paintings. He invents a new object using 400 kg of his favourite vegetable, the carrot. There is a bed also with bedclothes decorated with text and with a live person in it who waits for the visitors.
In the darkroom one can see a video installation with 8 films by him.
Gia Edzgveradze was born in 1953 in Tbilissi, Georgia.
In 1974 - 80 studied at the Georgian State Art Academy in Tbilissi.
Since 1974 he works with his huge black-and-white paintings: our museum have one of his best works from this period, the enormous scissors, coming from the Ludwig Collection.
In 1989 he moved to Germany and since 1996 he is professor of drawing at the Düsseldorf Art