Rusudan Khizanishvili & Juliana Cerqueira Leite

Assembly Room and Kunstraum LLC are pleased to present New York Meets Tbilisi: Defining Otherness, Part I, featuring paintings by Rusudan Khizanishvili and sculptures by Juliana Cerqueira Leite, as part of the curator’s investigation into the contemporary Georgian art in dialogue with New York-based artists.

This group exhibition is curated by Nina Mdivani, Curator-in-Residence at Kunstraum LLC, featuring artworks by Tbilisi-based painter Rusudan Khizanishvili (Georgia, 1979) and New York-based sculptor Juliana Cerqueira Leite (Brazil, 1981).

Introducing Rusudan Khizanishvil to the New York City art scene is part of the curator’s investigation into the contemporary Georgian art in dialogue with international artists.

Georgia has been oscillating between continuing its existence as a fully independent country or going back to being a post-Soviet, Russian satellite state. But contemporary Georgian artists are aiming to stay independent rather than succumbing to Moscow or the West. One such artist is the highly original painter Rusudan Khizanishvili. With influences drawn from the history of painting, her confident use of colour, combined with a palpable, often sensuous, handling of oil paint demonstrates an extraordinary maturity and independence.