Where to?: Niniko Morbedadze, Mishiko Sulakauri, Gvantsa Jishkariani

CH46 Gallery is proud to present a month-long pop-up exhibition in the heart of Chelsea, New York, featuring works by three pioneering artists from Tbilisi, Georgia.

The show, titled Where to?, brings together Niniko Morbedadze’s paintings, Gvantsa Jishkariani’s marble mosaics, and Mishiko Sulakauri’s steel objects. Works by each artist address and pose the question of “where to?” in their particular ways, both through the subject matter and the materials employed. 

As Niniko Morbedadze observes and reflects on the world around her, she transcribes the intangible undercurrents that flow between people and their surroundings in her surreal paintings. The unsaid is communicated through glances, piercing stares, and the body language of the characters inhabiting the out-of-this-world settings. The people in her paintings look at us inquisitively, expecting us to tell them where we are headed. 

Mishiko Sulakauri’s steel objects take the shape of architectural footprints of UNESCO-recognised heritage sites from around his homeland. By placing signs, symbols, gestural lines, and splashes of colour that draw their aesthetic form from street and popular culture within these shapes, the artist questions the direction in which Georgian culture is developing and the fate of ancient monuments as society keeps moving forward. 

Gvantsa Jishkariani’s natural stone mosaics portray butterflies and birds in flight, simultaneously headed to nowhere and somewhere. The artist works the stone by hand into minute fragments, creating light and airy beings out of naturally heavy materials, fashioning a beautiful and novel direction for a medium often associated with religious or state iconography.

The exhibition is on view at High Line Nine Galleries. 

508 West 28th Street

New York,

NY 10001