References abound in the work of Karlo Kacharava, whose perspectives were global long before the 1991 independence of his native Georgia from the Soviet Union. Across paintings and drawings, he splices borderless narratives both fictional and real to picture a world sprawling with connections. Ida Applebroog’s storyboards and Mario Sironi’s shadows; titans of German Expressionism and American Pop Art; the theories of Mikhail Bakunin; the poetry of Theodor Däubler; the novels of Patrick Modiano; the films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder; the lyrics of Nick Cave. Each citation becomes a vehicle and protagonist in Kacharava’s intricate network, which ambivalently stakes Tbilisi as a dislocated cultural nexus. Featuring tousled subjects and annotated with Latin and Georgian scripts, his spirited images weave stories at once particular and universal, of anarchy, longing, and hope.

A solo exhibition of Kacharava’s work, Sentimental Traveller, will take place at the S.M.A.K. (Ghent) in 2023.

Karlo Kacharava was born in Samtredia, Georgia, in 1964. He died in Tbilisi, Georgia in 1994.

Collections

Karlo Kacharava’s work is part of public collections worldwide. These include the Georgian National Museum (Tbilisi), He Art Museum (Foshan), Kolodzei Art Foundation (Highland Park) and the MARe/Muzeul de Artă Recentă (Bucharest).

Education

Kacharava studied at the Tbilisi State Academy of Art and graduated with a BA in 1986.

Exhibitions

His work has been featured in exhibitions at Super Super Markt (Berlin), Modern Art (London), Georgian National Museum (Tbilisi), Goethe-Institut Georgien (Tbilisi), Alexandre Chavchavadze House Museum (Tsinandali), Newman Popiashvili Gallery (New York), Mamuka Tsetskhladze Studio (Tbilisi), N Gallery (Tbilisi), Old Gallery (Tbilisi), Joyce Goldstein Gallery (New York), Giorgi Leonidze State Museum of Literature (Tbilisi), Dimitri Shevardnadze National Gallery (Tbilisi), Tbilisi History Museum, Metro Pictures (New York), Georgian State Museum of Literature (Tbilisi), Georgian State Museum of Theater, Music, Film and Choreography (Tbilisi) and Suite 106 Gallery (New York).