Feels Like Home
Courtesy of Levan Lagidze Gallery. This photograph was made by an Italian collector who visited the Lagidze Gallery in Tbilisi. The image in his phone is of an Italian city, beautifully superimposed on Lagidze’s Tbilisi-inspired landscape.
Inspired by Georgian cityscapes, Lagidze does not paint specific cities. Yet people from countries and cultures around the world see their city in his canvases. He sometimes titles his works “Macondo” - the perfect city of an imperfect memory, a city whose colours and textures reflect back to us the essence of a special place - perhaps the town of our childhood or the city which adopted us later in life - which in our hearts we call home.
Levan Lagidze, “Cities”, 2019, oil on canvas, 105 x 130cm, private collection
“I like looking at landscape from above”, Lagidze says. “As seen from a high perspective, all elements - the earth, the sky - are equally important and every detail contains within itself an expression of the whole." Sharing experiences while playfully looking deep beneath the surface is at the core of Lagidze’s textured and multifaceted art. “In today’s world”, he says “art carries a mission for harmonious existence and happiness”.
Lagidze paints within paintings – art within artworks. His complex palette reflects the multicoloured nature of the world, with blocks of colour both in the forefront and hidden, allowing for endless discoveries.
Levan Lagidze, “Cities”, 2022, oil on canvas, 105 x 130cm, private collection
Lagidze is a national treasure in his native country of Georgia, with work in the permanent collections of major museums in Georgia, Russia, and the United States.
I am excited to curate our annual exhibition of his art 23 October - 18 November, 2023 in South Kensington. I’ll post the details on the website and social media closer to the date. Lagidze will be joining us for part of that time. Don’t miss the opportunity to meet him if you can.
For queries, please email me at katrine@katrinelevin.com or DM me on FB/IG.
For Levan Lagidze’s bio and other works, click here
COOL FACT
In response to Levan Lagidze’s “Sunset Over My City” - a painting inspired by the artist’s native Tbilisi - a Spanish client sent me an aerial photograph of sunset over her city - Barcelona. It is such a joy amidst all our differences to feel the unity of shared experiences and perceptions of our common world.