In the fall of 2010, my wife and I conducted a mini-expedition to Georgia. Our main goal was to meet artists, whose works we knew only from the Internet.

In this article it seemed appropriate to combine two artists of different ages and temperaments, whose paintings nevertheless “work” together quite well, in my opinion.

The page of Ushangi Khumarashvili on Facebook hasn’t contained a photo of the artist or any personal data, and I, for some reason, out of foreigner ignorance, imagined Ushangi as a young black-browed Georgian beauty… This belief has extremely amused Irina, the owner of the flat we rented in Tbilisi. It turned out that Ushangi is a strictly masculine, antiquated name, which rarity nowadays hints to the age of its owner. And in fact, when we finally met Ushangi, he turned out to be a bit like an old Merlin, but without the beard and very tall. Ushangi is indeed like a kind magician in his occupation: each of his works is a small miracle for me!

Vakho Bugadze told us that he had made a surprise once for Ushangi – presented a whole personal exhibition containing solely portraits of Ushangi. While I imagine Ushangi as Merlin, Vakho is like a genie from the animation film “Aladdin” (not due to external similarity!). He manages to become anything he wants in his creation – so diversified are his various series of works. Vakho wears many faces – sculptor, painter, drawer of watercolours, creator of installations. When we visited the studio of Vakho, he has shown us something like thirty watercolours, each a meter and a half high – the results of the last month’s work.

Leonid Zeiger

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Ushangi Khumarashvili was born in 1948, graduated from Tbilisi Academy of Arts (Theatre Design Department). He has always lived in Telavi, where he worked as a theatre designer and taught in a child art school. In the late 90 ‘s, he moved to Tbilisi.


Gallery of works by Ushangi Khumarashvili:

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Wakho Bugadze was born in 1964, graduated from Tbilisi Academy of Arts (Faculty of Applied Arts, and later Sculpture). Vakho actively exhibits in Georgia and in Europe.

Gallery of works by Vakho Bugadze: