Irina Gabiani

Born 1971, Tbilisi (Georgia)

Lives and works in Luxembourg

Contact: irina.gabiani@yahoo.com


Other links:

http://www.artreview.com/profile/IrinaGabiani

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=412039013

After studying at the Academy in Tbilisi, Irina moved to Amsterdam where she studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy ("Free direction" and "Contemporary jewellery"). Irina has lived and worked in Luxembourg since 1998.

The Universe in its holistic essence is the focus of the research of the artist according to whom we all belong to a unique system, to a "big organism" imagined as a kind of complex, interrelated chain, of which we, and everything around us, are a part.

Trying to see beyond what we can perceive with our eyes, going beyond the vision of the world as we use to know, the artist researches the innumerable similarities between the infinitely big and the infinitely small within matter. The two "worlds" look as though they mirror one another.  The more we know matter and understand its complexity which escapes us at a simple glance, the more the infinitely small leads us to the universe. For this reason, especially in her recent works, images of the micro and macro universes appear one next to the other and, sometimes, the images from the micro exceed the dimension of those from the macro. Discovering infinite worlds within our every-day surroundings leads the artist to believe that there are other parallel realities in time and space.

In her works, Irina uses drawing, painting, photography and sculpture, often in porcelain or ceramics.

"The work of the Georgian artist is characterised by a virtuoso use of different media and materials. Drawings, photography, painting, sculpture in porcelain or ceramics are contsantly present in her artistic production...
.... The artist has elaborated an extremely refined language both from a formal and a conceptual point of view, where the influence of the oriental culture and philosophy can be found ....." (translation from Igor Zanti, Arte tra i piedi, Catalogue)

"... Irina Gabiani ... manipulates works made of sculpture, performance, drawing, photography and video. It is a long reasoning on forces and matters, visible and invisible, that compose life and human beings. Being they objects or metaphorical theatrical representations, to which the video gives the features of a demiurgic parable. ..."   (from Olga Gambari, Video Dia Loghi 2007, Catalogue)