The artist is a monumental painter who paints on coasters

Avtandil Gurgenidze is a famous Georgian artist, photographer and tourist guide. He graduated from the Tbilisi Academy of Arts and participated in more than 50 art exhibitions around the world.

His recognizable paintings are: the Nadzaladevi metro station in Tbilisi, a weather station at an altitude of 3750 m in the Kazbek mountains, a ski station in the resort of Gudauri and many objects on the streets of Georgia and Europe.

Indeed, in the specialty Avtandil is a monumentalist, he is called to draw large and large-scale objects, paint buildings and work with monumental forms.

What made the monumental artist take up close work and draw on unusual objects, on coasters (coasters for beer glasses), envelopes for cutlery, napkins, and even on hygienic air bags?

- For me, the size of the surface on which I draw is not important, says Avtandil, of course I want to paint something big, monumental and noticeable, but sometimes I am also inspired by simple things, everyday objects, details. Then I pick up brushes, markers or pencils and draw. So there was a series of works on napkins, which was painted in Frankfurt. I just sat in a cozy cafe and was thinking about plans for the future and all of a sudden napkins, ordinary scraps of thin cellulose, caught my eye. It is very difficult to draw on them, because the paint spreads and quickly spreads over the surface. It is necessary to carefully measure the degree of exposure of the carcass to the paper, calculate the strength and be very careful. It only pushed me to try it, because I love difficult tasks. The works turned out to be interesting, many of those who saw them did not immediately understand what these paintings were painted on, but this is good, you can then tell the audience about such things for a long time and watch their surprise.

In January 2013, my project took place in Ukraine - an exhibition of Art Avia paintings on UIA hygiene packages. It was a joint project with an air carrier. It all started also spontaneously, I wanted to draw right on the plane, I didn’t find anything nearby, only these packages that are issued to passengers. So there was a series of paintings on hygiene bags, in which there are 130 exhibits. Created this series in a month and a half. It worked easily, despite the features of the painting, because the paper of these packages is also not simple, it has a special thickness and texture. How I managed to get everything done - were able to note and appreciate the Kiev audience, who for two weeks had the opportunity to get acquainted with the Art Avia project at the Museum of Modern Art in Kiev. All painted packages were sent to private collections and company offices, because people reacted with interest to them, bought, because they liked such an unusual combination of art and objects for hygiene needs. Therefore, most of it has already been sold out and I’m glad that my clients can decorate their homes and offices with such an interesting art.

So in my life it happens all the time - I see a thing and want to make it bright, sunny, fill it with flowers and mood. During a visit to the city, I visited the Yuzovskaya Brewery restaurant and didn’t return home to Tbilisi without work - I grabbed several dozen envelopes for cutlery and a coaster — cardboard cards that fit under glasses with beer. I am making this all out now, painting it to show the residents of Donetsk how grateful I am for their hospitality and sincerity, which I feel during every visit to this city, how bright I want Donetsk to be. I want to show these works on corporate objects from the Yuzovskaya Brewery restaurant to Ukrainian viewers as part of a cultural project or personal exhibition in Donetsk.

Some of my customers say that in my works there is a Georgian flavor, a Georgian rhythm, an ornament is felt. I did not think about this, because the style in which I work was really created by me, a Georgian artist who wandered around the mountains with his father and absorbed Georgian air and Georgian history and now I express all this unconsciously in my paintings.

I really like to apply small details, again due to difficulties in work. The picture can be large, for example, as my last large-scale picture. Its size is 2.5 m by 1.5 m, the plot is also large-scale: I reproduced on it in full growth a 10-year-old girl, the daughter of my friends. But if you look closely at the individual fragments of this picture, you will see a lot of small drawings, ornaments, patterns with which I fill each of my work, they are a feature of my style, an author’s application and I always enjoy this work on small details, although I am artist - monumentalist.

Such unusual paintings by Avtandil Gurgenidze, framed or in mat, look like real works of art, moreover, the art is original and exclusive. So admit which of you in the collection has a picture on a hygiene bag or on a glass holder for a beer glass? This is a new look at art, art without limits.

Material prepared by Nina Burnevich (art manager, curator)