Guram Shavdia

Guram Shavdia reconceptualizes historical figures, characters from comics and fairy tales, works of art, sports and war - archetypes established to become pop-culture symbols. The process of cultural perception and introspection conditions this practice. With humour, self-irony, intuition, romanticism, acceptance and openness, he places Napoleon and the grandmother-wolf of "Little Red Riding Hood" in one dimension, levels the prevailing cultural "values," and transforms well-known old signs and symbols into metaphors of new meanings.

The artist's primary mediums are painting and graphics. However, the line between them is blurred through mixed media, which includes oil and acrylic paints, pastels, charcoal, and, in some cases, collage elements. The technique is always an authentic part of the concept, like the theme—impulsive and intuitive.

Guram Shavdia, born in 1988 in Tbilisi, Georgia, attended Iakob Nikoladze Art School between 2003-2007. He continued his studies at Dusseldorf Academy of Fine Arts under the guidance of Marcus Lupertz and Andreas Schulze, graduating with distinction (Meisterschüler) in 2014 and receiving his MA diploma (Akademiebrief). While living in Germany, he held three solo and numerous group exhibitions. Since 2020, he has lived and worked in Tbilisi. In 2023, Guram Shavdia and Mariam Odishelidze founded Raum, a combined work and exhibition space based in Tbilisi, Georgia.