I create environments that question canonical truths, destabilizing identity-construction, representation, and archive. The personal and political—intricately inseparable—exist within a historical and cultural context in my work. Materials and their physical nature take precedence over any specific medium. My installations—modular steel structures—are self-sustained display systems, holding paintings, tapestries, curtains, objects, and neons. They also become the settings for soundscapes. As opposed to "illustration," I employ "embodiment" as a primary creative strategy. For every presentation, I create sets of screens, hand-painted renderings in a liquid mirror that depict each project's source materials. These semi-objects juxtapose the image and reflections of viewers and their surroundings. What they capture becomes an archive of the work in continuous change.
This website reflects my work’s evolution since 2016. My early solo exhibitions show the immigrant artist's search for rootedness while in constant displacement. Meanwhile, my latest installation at the Tbilisi Art Fair comments on the commodification and branding of geographical ‘hot spots’ within a globalized art market.
"Levani's Room" is an ongoing project that stages an encounter between my adult queer identity and upbringing in Georgia, and I've been presenting it throughout 2020 in the form of different chapters. The piece honors the role of community and a sense of queer kinship through my artistic forebears and New York's underground club scene. By repeatedly recreating the wallpaper patterns of my childhood, I come full circle, revisiting the earliest stages of my life, trauma and consciousness.
EDUCATION
2008-2010
Postgraduate Studies in Combined Artistic Languages, IUNA (National University of Art of Buenos Aires) Argentina;
1997-2003
Tbilisi State Academy of Fine Arts;
AWARDS & RESIDENCIES
2020
Peter S.Reed Foundation Grant for Mixed Media / Sculpture;
New York Foundation of Arts Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program;
2019
Creative Time, Grant for X Summit Creative Dinners (with Elene Damenia);
AIM fellowship, The Bronx Museum of the Arts;
2018
NARS Foundation Studio Residency, Brooklyn;
2014
FABLES Commission grant for Public Art Projects, National Endowments for Arts, New York City;
2011
Emerging Artist of 2011. Movistar Arte Jóven 2011, Centro Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires, Argentina;
2010
The 3rd Award for the Drawing, Premio Museo Metropolitano, Buenos Aires, Argentina;
TALKS & PANELS
2019
“What is Political?” moderator of the panel with Monika Sosnowska (artist) and Sohrab Mohebbi (curator, SculptureCenter NY), Tbilisi Art Fair Talk Series, Organized by Kunsthalle Tbilisi;
“Contemporary Georgian Art Now,” panelist. Moderated by Dr. Heike Fuhlbruegge, Berlin Art Fair Talk Series;
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
National Art Museum of China, Beijing;
Georgian National Museum, Mestia;
Tbilisi Silk Museum, Georgia;
SOLO AND TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2020
"Levani's Room: Pretty Like A Girl" Marisa Newman Projects (forthcoming);
2019
“Now is Always Someone Else,” NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, NY;
"89.19" Berlin Art Fair, Germany;
“I Should Have Kissed You Longer,” TAF’19, Tbilisi, Georgia;
2018
“In Search of The Miraculous” NADA Miami Beach;
“Non_Place: Levan Mindiashvili, Grant Wells,” SFA Projects, NYC;
2017
“Here”, Georgian National Museum, Mestia;
“In-Between”, State Silk Museum, Tbilisi, Georgia;
“Shifting Identities,” VOLTA NY;
2016
“Night Intervention” Uta Bekaia+Levan Mindiashvili, State Silk Museum, Georgia;
“Unintended Archeology, Levan Mindiashvili+Uta Bekaia,” The Lodge Gallery, NYC;
2015
“Kiosk,” ODETTA, Brooklyn, NY;
“Suites For Unintended Archeology,” The Vazquez Building, Brooklyn, NY;
2014
“Borderlines”, The Lodge Gallery, New York City, NY;
2013
“Whispers,” ArtArea Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia;
“Urban Identities,” Kunstraub99, Cologne, Germany;
2011
“Intimidades Mobiles,” NES Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina;
2009
“Levan Mindiashvili: Performances,” part of ArtIsterium 09, II International Forum of Contemporary Art, Tbilisi, Georgia;
GROUP EXHIBITIONS (selection)
2019
“In Search of The Miraculous,” Shau Fenster, Berlin, Germany;
“Surrogate histories / projected remains,” Project: ARTspace, NYC;
“Lucky Draw,” SculptureCenter, NY;
“BRIC Biennial Vol.3,” BRIC, Brooklyn, NY;
“Image and Its Likeness,” Museum of Modern Art, Tbilisi;
2018
“Black & Noir,” Galerie Youn, Montreal, Canada;
“Down The Line...” NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, NY:
“What We Loved Was Not Enough,” Super Dutchess, New York, NY;
“RE:21 This Is Not Here,” Pfizer Building, Brooklyn, NY;
“The Border No.1,” The Border Project Space, Brooklyn, NY;
“Hot Stuff,” ODETTA, Brooklyn, NY;
“Tbilisi… Tbilisi,” Project ArtBeat, Tbilisi;
2017
The 7th Beijing International Art Biennale, National Art Museum of China;
“True Believers,” David & Schweitzer Contemporary, Brooklyn, NY;
“Limits of My City,” Georgian National Museum, Tbilisi;
2016
“Shaping Identities,” Tbilisi History Museum, Georgia;
“Eco Impulse,” Tbilisi Literature Museum, Georgia;
“Future Memory,” Art Villa Garikula, Georgia;
“Shaping Identities,” Arsenal Museum, Kiev, Ukraine;
“Green,” The National Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia;
“Aesthetics of Repair in Contemporary Georgia,” Tartu Art Museum, Estonia;
“A Room of One's Own: An Exhibition,” The Clemente, NYC;
2015
“Structures,” The Manny Cantor Center, NYC;
“HERITAGE,” RichMix Arts Center, London, UK;
2014
“Crossing The Boundaries.03,” AT388, Rotterdam, The Netherlands;
2013
“HERITAGE,” Georgian National Museum, Tbilisi, Georgia;
“For Which It Stands,” The Lodge Gallery, New York City, NY;
2012
“MAN/kind,” 32 Jones Gallery, Jersey City, NJ;
Summer Show, Fundacion Mundo Nuevo, Buenos Aires, Argentina;
2011
Movistar Arte Joven 2011, Centro Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires, Argentina;
“Seres Encontrados,” “Objeto a” art gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina;
2010
ArtIsterium 10, III International Forum of Contemporary Art, Tbilisi, Georgia;
“Projects,” Isidro Miranda Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina;
“Vectores Invertidos,” Laguanacazul Art Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina;
“Heterodoxa02,” Nes_zona 54 Art Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina;
2009
“Negro Barocco,” Encontre Arte Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina;
“New Generation,” Gallery Arsi, Tbilisi, Georgia;
“Kunst Raub #003,” Galerie Kunstraub99, Cologne, Germany;
2008
“Heterodoxa01,” Salon Dorado, Teatro Roma, Buenos Aires, Argentina;
“Weltreise der Sinne,” IKV Bonn, Germany;
2007
“Perdue,” GalerieD’Art Paris8, Paris, France;
2006
“The Lost Ones,” Gallery Universe, Tbilisi, Georgia;
“Georgian Visual Art,” National Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia;
2005
“Tbilisi Impronte,” Gallery Borgo Arte, Borgomanero, Italy;
“Figurative Art Studio.02,” Gallery Universe, Tbilisi, Georgia;
“Kunst Aus Georgien.03,” Gallery CultiG7, Mannheim, Germany;
2004
“Figurative Art Studio.01,” Gallery Universe, Tbilisi, Georgia;
2003
“Kunst Aus Georgien.02,” Gallery CultiG7, Mannheim, Germany.