April 3 - April 24
Patara gallery invites you to our third, new location, which is the first space above the ground, where we will be exhibiting in the coming months. This is exactly the address where "Patara" should be: Two steps from the notorious Eliava Bazaar, between repair garages and car parts shops, by the river, close to the river-named club, on the street named after Georgian Prince, prince who also wrote maps...: these all fits brilliantly Patara's own history written between travels: we, as well, write the history of Tbilisi by traveling from district to district, from underground to above the ground, crafting exhibitions of the royal beauty and cherishing the love of the people! Our third space and this exhibition was made possible with the funding of our visitors, ordinary people!
The exhibition is by Nathalie Kalandadze. Nathalie is an artist who learned many different things in different countries and cities, then returned to Tbilisi and made us fall in love in her very different from a local painting school style. Her works: paintings, objects, videos, are often inspired by various expressions of nature and environmental characters, and often, especially in paintings, we recognise familiar faces. Stylistically, Nathalie's works can be paralleled with Alice Neel and the aesthetics of "Georgian emigrant mothers" navigating the Internet, which, brought together, create fantastic combinations in her works.
Nathalie Presents her first self-portrait and installation that was created for the exhibition. Self-portrait, especially from a contemporary female artist, is always an important work, it always depicts the moment of a turning point, it is the most emotional, sensitive, vulnerable. And when put publicly, for everyones gaze, is a try to look inside her own soul, understand and start loving herself.
Around the self-portrait, Nathalie creates an environment in which the society becomes an integral part of the artist's self-portrait, but the viewer does not see the whole image at once and can perceive only a part of the portrait, through their own bodies, their own self-portraits.
"It's an attempt to convey what I'm trying to express through self-diversion, but strangely, it always returns to its original state.
Everything around is being torn down to make a way for a new one.
And this exhibition is not about demolitions or new constructions, neither about me, nor about you, it is about natural processes - ordinary battles and ordinary wars."