Mamuka Dideba's Magical Worlds - Colour and Light
Mamuka Dideba, Urban Allusions 15, 2024, oil and glazing on canvas, 90 x 100cm
PART I: COLOUR AND LIGHT
As part of “Urban Allusions”, our solo exhibition 2-14 September by Mamuka Dideba, a master of the abstract and figurative who returns to London with new works after his critically acclaimed exhibition with us in 2019, this blog and the next will highlight his work, beginning with his irresistible contemplative abstractions and continuing with his unforgettable figurative works which earned him the moniker of “Georgia’s Brueghel”.
Mamuka Dideba, Urban Allusions 9, 2024, oil and glazing on canvas, 70 x 65cm
Dideba’s abstract worlds pulsate through his ingenious treatment of light, rendered with particular skill and imagination. At times, the light mischievously penetrates the thinner constructs of colour and structure; at others, it daringly emerges as a brilliant flash of hope, illuminating expanses amidst denser regions.
Mamuka Dideba, Urban Allusions 5, 2024, oil and glazing on canvas, 70 x 65cm
The colours illuminating the complex geometry of his compositions flow almost imperceptibly from one shade to the next, changing from soft to bold, counterbalancing vibrant passages with more reserved counterparts, finding a compelling harmony in the flow.
Mamuka Dideba, Urban Allusions 12, 2024, oil and glazing on canvas, 70 x 65cm
His abstractions are filled with magic, fantasy and hope, conjuring magical worlds that draw you inside and expand with the power of your imagination. The possibilities are limitless.
Dideba’s paintings appear to be lit from within owing to his masterly use of imprimatura, a multi-layer Renaissance-era technique that allows light falling onto the painting to reflect through the paint layers. The technique requires enormous skill and patience.
Mamuka Dideba, Urban Allusions 14, 2024, oil and glazing on canvas, 100 x 90cm
The current exhibition Urban Allusions celebrates human creativity and the enduring power of knowledge. Its magical worlds are conjured with the metaphorical light and knowledge brought down from Olympus by Prometheus.
In these fantastical cities - built of ingenious interplay of light and colour, imperceptibly changing tones, and evocative shapes - day coexists with night, symbolising the ongoing cycle of creation and renewal.
Mamuka Dideba, Urban Allusions 1, 2024, oil and glazing on canvas, 50 x 55cm
Inspired in part by the magical realism of Italo Calvino, these l cities are fragments of ourselves reflected back at us, perceived through our own individual lens of past memories and future aspirations.
The Urban Allusions journey is a beautiful reminder that cities are more than a conglomeration of people and buildings, they are spaces where our shared values, dreams, and hopes converge.
Mamuka Dideba, Urban Allusions 13, 2024, oil and glazing on canvas, 70 x 65cm
Born in 1968 in Tbilisi, Georgia, where he lives and works, Mamuka Didebashvili (Dideba) studied at the Nikoladze School of Art and the Tbilisi’s State Art Academy, Georgia. In the interim between the Art School and the Academy, he was drafted and served with the elite airborne Special Forces unit in Afghanistan, charged with rescue missions. His life is incredible not only in that he survived, but that he was able to return to art, creating works filled with such hope and light.
Widely collected in Georgia and internationally, Dideba’s artworks have been shortlisted for the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition in London and make an important contribution to contemporary Georgian culture.