The visual dialogue developed at the exhibition is held between two artists working in the traditional medium, who are trying to rethink the centuries-old material. Two creative voices emerging from academia successfully find their own, highly unique signature within the established tradition of form and material. The works presented on the exhibition concern with the questions of transforming the hefty and static into malleable and dynamic and the delicate balance between.

The exhibition shows David Natidze’s natural stone sculptures. Natidze’s art derives from the tradition of modernist sculpture; formalist explorations play a leading role in his work. The artist draws inspiration from natural forms, then abstracts them and transforms into highly refined and delicate sculptures deploying a minimalist gesture. The resulting works find a delicate middleground between the abstract and the figurative, leaving room for plenty of interpretations. The artist has a special sensitivity towards the material through which he creates simple but highly elegant forms. He processes the stone to obtain a smooth silk-like surfaces, and in this way, he manages to give the material, natural stone, a delicate and elegant airiness. Natidze’s biomorphic forms, sophistication found in simplicity, on the mystical and philosophical, on the fragility of life and this inexplicable balance that holds the universe together.

Young painter Mariam Akhobadze’s new figurative series revolves around gymnasts. Androgynous figures are depicted in motion, at different stages of training. Immersed in timelessness and weightlessness, the figures seem to be so focused on maintaining balance that they don’t notice each other at all; immersed in themselves, they are wrapped in collective solitude. Familiar gymnastic tricks and people frozen in different poses, remind of studies for the human figure; the artist is deeply invested in the technical side of painting and demonstrates an excellent knowledge of academic painting. However, unintentionally, the paintings turn into psychological portraits and metaphors of the life experiences and delicate dilemmas that define us as a person.