{"id":817783,"date":"2026-10-29T17:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T17:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/817783\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T17:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T17:28:11","slug":"as-protests-in-georgia-intensify-again-a-new-private-museum-puts-focus-on-the-countrys-artists-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/817783\/","title":{"rendered":"As protests in Georgia intensify again, a new private museum puts focus on the country\u2019s artists – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Georgia\u2019s art scene has been navigating a period of tension since a wave of protests rippled through the country in 2024, sparked by issues including the introduction of a law that critics say threatens freedom of expression. Two years on, as demonstrations continue<\/a>, some much-needed good news for local artists has arrived with the launch of a new private museum dedicated to Georgian contemporary art.<\/p>\n

The Kvareli Foundation for Contemporary Art<\/a>, around two hours\u2019 drive east from Tbilisi, past fields, forts and mountains, is scheduled to open on 2 November. One of its core missions, according to the foundation\u2019s creative director Nino Sulkhanishvili, is \u201cto show the artists who aren\u2019t given space in an institutional setting\u201d, in some cases because of their political stances. \u201cWe decided to give the space to those who actually need it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The institution has been built from scratch on 115 acres of land purchased by its founder, the shipping and logistics executive Jemal Inaishvili. It is housed in a hyper-modern two-storey building, its facade a series of blood-red slats encased in a silver-grey frame.<\/p>\n

Along with the exhibition spaces and shop, there is a rooftop auditorium for performances and film screenings. \u201cWe wish to have many reasons to have good people come and celebrate,\u201d Inaishvili says. The grounds also comprise sculptures, a five-star hotel and a winery. The estimated total cost is more than \u20ac25m, funded by Inaishvili and his family.<\/p>\n

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An aerial view of the foundation, showing its rooftop space that will be used for performances and film screenings<\/p>\n

Courtesy Midamo<\/p>\n

Inaishvili\u2019s personal collection provides an anchor for the foundation\u2019s programme. He has been amassing art for about 40 years: he thought of becoming a painter in his youth, he explains, and surrounded himself with artists. He recalls the incident that kickstarted his collecting: \u201cIt was around 1985 and we were drinking until late hours. The artist Irakli Sutidze was hosting us and I said: \u2018I want to buy this work\u2019\u201d. From the mid-1990s onwards, contemporary art became his focus.<\/p>\n

It was a time of challenge and opportunity, Inaishvili says: following Georgia\u2019s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, \u201cthe country was poor, and so there were not too many buyers, not too many collectors\u201d. Today, he remains one of few major collectors in the country who is concentrated on the work of living artists\u2014something he wishes to change through his foundation. About 10% of his collection is by international artists\u2013including Ukrainians, whom he is keen to support, he says, \u201cespecially in this very, very difficult condition for their nation\u201d.<\/p>\n

The inaugural exhibition, Georgian Contemporary Art: Origins and Continuities, combines works from Inaishvili\u2019s collection with loans to trace the development of Georgian art since the 1960s. It will show, for example, how \u201cin the post-Stalin era, artists began to experiment with their autonomy\u201d, Sulkhanishvili explains; and how, in the 1970s and 1980s, artists began to work together in conscious opposition to art sanctioned by the Soviets, with examples including the avant-garde collective Archivarius. It will also explore the work of artists like Misha Shengelia and Kote Sulaberidze, who incorporated dark humour into their work in the 1990s to express their experiences of a difficult time for many Georgians, marked by war and financial chaos.<\/p>\n

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Nina Kintsurashvili, Rising (2025) <\/p>\n

Courtesy of Kvareli Foundation for Contemporary Art<\/p>\n

Inaishvili says this whole story has never been told before. But \u201cwe\u2019re not trying to show everything that was done during those times,\u201d Sulkhanishvili says, adding that the exhibition will feature many works that have never been seen in public.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was trying to see, first of all, what is the definition of contemporary art in general\u2014so how Modernism developed into Post-modernism and contemporary art,\u201d he says. \u201cI tried to fix that equation in Georgian art, which was difficult because everything was basically underground, unofficial practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Irakli Parjiani, The Annunciation (1989)<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Kvareli Foundation for Contemporary Art<\/p>\n

Georgia\u2019s institutional art sector has only been developing in earnest, Sulkhanishvili says, since the early 2000s. This has been a complicated journey, defined by seismic political shifts including the current Georgian Dream government\u2019s pivot away from Europe and towards Russia.<\/p>\n

The adoption of the so-called \u201cRussian law\u201d\u2014officially the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence\u2014in spring 2024 ushered in new rules for organisations receiving foreign funding, which the NGO Human Rights Watch argued would \u201cmarginalise and stifle critical voices\u201d. The move prompted crowds of creative workers to take to the streets and boycott public institutions. Disputed parliamentary results<\/a> in October that year, and the Georgian government\u2019s decision to suspend EU accession talks a month later, brought fresh, intensified protests. <\/p>\n

These demonstrations have continued since. This month, amid outcry over a lawsuit brought by Georgian Dream that seeks to ban five opposition parties<\/a>, a new campaign was launched, which is reportedly expected to culminate<\/a> with a major rally on 28 November.<\/p>\n

A critical role for independent organisations<\/p>\n

The fractious relationship between artists and state institutions places emphasis on the role of independent organisations like the Kvareli Foundation. Inaishvili\u2019s career has been primarily in the shipping and logistics sector; his current roles include chairman of the board of Tbilisi Dry Port. But he also served as a member of the Georgian parliament\u2014for his home constituency of Batumi\u2014and as the deputy chair of parliament in the early 2000s, during Mikheil Saakashvili\u2019s presidency. Business, he says, has always been his main focus. \u201cIf I wanted to continue in politics, I would still be in it; I said, \u2018thank you and goodbye\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sulkhanishvili places emphasis not just on the foundation\u2019s independence but also its location outside of Tbilisi, which, she says, already has a healthy ecosystem of commercial galleries as well as foundations such as Atinati.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to shift the focus from the capital,\u201d she says. \u201cKakheti [the wider region in which Kvareli is located] is known for its hospitality, its wine, for its amazing food, for its amazing historical sites, but not specifically for contemporary art. This is something that\u2019s never been brought before.\u201d There are plans for a future residency programme at the institution.<\/p>\n

Inaishvili says he wishes to help people\u2014including the country\u2019s wealthy and international visitors\u2014to learn about Georgian contemporary art and perhaps inspire them to collect and patronise it, as he has been doing for four decades. \u201cGeorgian artists do not have enough support in my opinion,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have to create the appetite.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kvareli Foundation for Contemporary Art<\/a>, Georgia, opens on 2 November<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Georgia\u2019s art scene has been navigating a period of tension since a wave of protests rippled through the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,4590,10748,29323,86040,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-817783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-georgia","tag-museums","tag-openings","tag-private-museums","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}