A self-portrait in the studio as archive, memory, and working space
This photograph shows me painting in my studio at 17 Arutin-Saiatnova Street in Old Tbilisi in 2012.
I worked in this studio from 2008 until 2019. It was a crucial place in my practice, where many important paintings, digital works, and thematic series were created, including Horse Thief Saiatnova Street. In 2019, I also minted my first digital works for SuperRare there.
The painting visible in progress is Pack Horses New York City, acquired in 2023 by the Georgian Museum of Fine Arts in Tbilisi, where it now belongs to the collection.
The room contains a compressed map of my artistic world at that time: paintings, works on paper, the lightbox Deisinformation, a photocopy of Vladimir Mayakovsky, an original photograph by George Tsagareli from the civil war in Tbilisi, two small works by Avto Meskhi, a Xerox copier that served as an important working tool, and copies of my photographs of Uzbek Buzkashi.
I am wearing an Uzbek fur hat from Bukhara. Uzbekistan has long been important to me.
For me, this image is more than a studio photograph. It is a document of artistic work, memory, influence, and historical presence — all gathered in one space.
