Art lovers in Latvia have the chance to see the work of Georgian painter Vaho Muskheli up close at the moment with an exhibition of his work at the ‘Istaba’ gallery in Rīga, reports Latvian Radio.

Muskheli has lived in Seattle, America, for 30 years, where he has an active artistic life, but he has never lost touch with Georgia, where his exhibitions take place and where he is a professor at the Tbilisi Academy of Arts.

This is the first exhibition of Vaho Muskheli’s works in Latvia, and he has brought a rich selection of small-format works and sketches. They well reveal his originality, masterful technique, and also the most characteristic themes of his works. Most often, his works are multi-layered messages about a person’s relationship with the world, with the secular and spiritual dimensions.

It turns out that the Georgian painter has warm memories of Latvia dating back 50 years. In the 1970s, as a student at the Georgian Academy of Arts, he was on a student exchange trip to Latvia and spent two months in Salacgrīva.

Vaho Muskheli’s paintings are like their own special world, inhabited by images, in which the human body is often connected to the form of an animal and a bird. These images are usually in motion or at some symbolic boundaries or horizons, and looking at them creates a peculiar feeling of tension and fate. The layers of colour in the paintings seem transparent, yet heavy, creating a sense of antiquity, mystery and surreality.

Along with many abstract images, the exhibition also features several recognizable and very concrete characters such as caricatured images of Vladimir Putin, Sergei Lavrov, and other deeply unpleasant individuals in this solo exhibition which presents work ranging from sketches and nature studies to philosophical compositions.

Vaho Muskheli’s exhibition “Signs” is on view at the Istaba gallery until April 23. Details here.

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