"Rainbow of vision." Exhibition of Vazha Okitashvili

The Russian Academy of Arts and the Moscow Museum of Modern Art present a solo exhibition of works by Russian artist, academician of the Russian Academy of Arts Vazha Shotaevich Okitashvili, dedicated to the 65th anniversary of the author. The exposition will include more than 150 paintings and drawings of different years.

Vazha Okitashvili was born in 1952 in Tbilisi. He was fond of painting from childhood and remained faithful to his love of art for life. In 1980 he graduated from the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts (artist-painter). In the 1990s, he worked in the Georgian Designers Union. Since 1992, lives and works in Moscow. Since 1993, he participated in many projects: Poklonnaya Gora, Manezhnaya Square, a monument to Peter I in Moscow, the reconstruction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, etc. Since 2000, he is a member of the Creative Union of Artists of Russia, as well as a member of the International Federation of Artists. Okitashvili’s works are in museum and private collections in Russia and abroad.

Mountain valley, 185x185, oil on canvas, 2013

The artist works in the technique of oil painting and graphics, gives preference to landscape and still life. Created in a unique authoring manner, the works of Vazha Okitashvili are immersed in the artist’s world, filled with strong emotions, love for their native land, for its nature and the outgoing antiquity of cities, for all people on the earth.

All his work is based on the theme of the Motherland, on the theme of the House. His aesthetics are simple and vibrant, like himself. His palette is colorful, sunny and very positive. His World is a fairy-tale world, a mosaic of life, bright and childishly enthusiastic. Perhaps this is a special ability - to see the surroundings like that, as if through the colored glass of a kaleidoscope, folding their own, special patterns from them. He creates a kind of collage from all this, inexplicably giving birth to the integrity of his work. And it is no accident that the collage arises both as a genre in his work, and as a way of thinking and building a picturesque surface on canvas.

Dedata Monastery, 190x190, oil on canvas, 2014

The main connecting beginning of the works of Vazha Okitashvili is pure saturated color. With it, the artist can speak with the audience in different languages. The language of his “Flowers” is a combination of complex moods, either echoing or now loudly responding with a complex polyphony of the color palette. The language of black and white graphics is special, it gravitates to a hint of sensations and a silhouette in perception (a series of “City Sketches”, a series of “Tales”).

“A free, modest, incredibly charming and informative person looks at us from his paintings…”, Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, art critic A. A. Zolotov, described Vazha Okitashvili’s work as an artist.

Cross, 100x120, oil on canvas 2012

Okitashvili’s style is close to the so-called “naive art”, rooted in the work of his outstanding compatriot Niko Pirosmani. Vazha Okitashvili’s original and childishly sincere art is organically included in the circle of “naive” - an amazing phenomenon of modern art life, the specificity of which still causes lively debate.

Reflection, 80x100, oil on canvas, 2012

Sahlebi, 250x150, oil on canvas, 2012