Gvantsa Jishkariani (d. 1991) graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of the Tbilisi State Academy of the Fine Arts, then completed an informal master's program at the Center of Contemporary Art-Tbilisi. Since then, the artist has been actively exhibiting in Georgia and abroad, including Brussels, Prague, Zurich, Dusseldorf, Naples and Baku.
Gvantsa is the co-founder of the contemporary art galleries in Tbilisi, Patara Gallery and The Why Not Gallery. In 2021 Gvantsa was awarded with Prince Claus Foundation Seed Awards for young artists and art practitioners. In 2020 she was selected for the Forbes 30 under 30 list, Between 2017 and 2019, Gvantsa was the curator of the Tbilisi Photo Festival Night of Photography. In 2019 she won the NARS Foundation Studio Grant, New York (not-taken), and in 2017 the artist received the Tsinandali Award in Visual Arts. Gvantsa was the founder of the first Georgian online magazine Gar-Gar magazine on art and fashion (2013-18).
Her creative practices, both artistic and curatorial, reflect on the artist's immediate environment, personal experiences and socio-political realities. The artist works in a variety of materials and techniques, often inspired by Georgian cultural heritage, and then interpreted in a completely different way. Recently, the artist has been actively working around Georgian craft traditions, such as mosaics, tapestries, as a kind of therapy to reflect on her own experiences and collective memories of her generation.
CV
EDUCATION:
2013-2014 Informal M.A. in Creative Mediation, Center of Contemporary Art Tbilisi (CCA-T)
2009-2013 B.A. of Architecture and Design, Tbilisi State Academy of Arts
AWARDS/RESIDENCIES/GRANTS
2021
Prince Claus Foundation - Seed Awards recipient
2020
Exhibition Grant - Ministry of Culture Georgia
Forbes Georgia - 30 under 30 - visual arts
2019
Studio grant at Fotograf Gallery, Prague, Czechia
Studio grant at NARS foundation, NY, USA
2018
RESIDENCY GRANT at BINZ39, Zurich, Switzerland
2017
WINNER of Tsinandali award in Visual Art
RESIDENCY GRANT at Transcultural ArtLab, Juist, Germany
RESIDENCY GRANT at Frauenkulturburo NRW e.V., Dusseldorf, Germany
2016
RESIDENCY GRANT at Yarat, Contemporary Art Space, Baku, Azerbaijan
RESIDENCY GRANT at Batumi Back Yard Stories, Batumi, Georgia
REPRESENTED BY
The why not gallery (Tbilisi, Georgia)
2017-2019 Curator at Tbilisi Photo Festival
Since 2017 Founder and curator of PATARA gallery and The Why Not Gallery
Since 2014 Founder of a portal about Georgian Art – Gargar.ge
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2022
Professionally hot- A01 gallery, Naples, Italy, (Solo, TBA)
I Dream of Fire - The why not gallery (Solo, May)
Munich, ( Two person show, TBA)
2020
Together Forever - Solo Show at Open Space, Tbilisi Georgia
Permanent Adolescence - Solo show in Ballon Rouge Club, Brussels, Belgium
2019
Who will record History? solo show at Project Artbeat, Tbilisi, Georgia
2018
a Tree.ხე at A01 gallery, Naples, Italy
REPTILIANS WITH WINGS at Template Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
GOODS ARE LEFT ON THE SHELVES-Performance at Nectar Gallery Performance Days, Tbilisi, Georgia
2017
SAVANNA SAVAGE at the Moving Gallery by Project ArtBeat, Batumi, Georgia
2016
Whales are Lonely at State silk museum, Tbilisi, Georgia
WITCHCRAFT AND CURIOSITY at A01 gallery, Naples, Italy
COUNTERFEIT GOODS at Yarat, Baku, Azerbaijan
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
2022
I am Nobody, who are you? , at Rhizome, Kortrijk, Belgium
Soft opening, Halle13, Vienna , Austria, (TBA, March)
Patara Gallery in Plague space, Krasnodar (TBA May- June)
Sorry, No Flowers Here, The why not gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia, February- March
2021
ALL YOUR FAVOURITE BITCHES & WITCHES at CAS Batumi, Georgia
TWO SHAPES OF LEAF ON TREE at KAIR, Kosice, Slovakia
PUNK IS IN THE HEAD at A01 gallery, Naples
2019
GROUP SHOW at gallery artbeat, Tbilisi, Georgia
UTILITIES, gallery Warehouse, Tbilisi, Georgia
2018
EENY, MEENY, MINNIE MOE at Project ArtBeat, Tbilisi, Georgia
IN AND OUT OF REALITY at Expo Georgia, Tbilisi Art Fair, Tbilisi, Georgia
2017
OCCURRENCES at Gallery Nectar, Tbilisi, Georgia
TAVIDAN at CCA TBILISI, Tbilisi, Georgia
NACHTFOYER at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany
SUFFOCATION VIA BUTTERFLY EFFECT at State Silk Museum, Tbilisi, Georgia
