EXPOCHICAGO 2024

11–14 APRIL 2024

EXPOSURE | BOOTH 322

Uta Bekaia

Levani (Levan Mindiashvili)

PREVIEW (PDF)

For the EXPOCHICAGO 2024 edition Marisa Newman Projects is pleased to present a two-person presentation centered on world-building, featuring sculptures, mosaics, mirror paintings, and marble furniture by Uta Bekaia and Levani.

Through their intricate craftsmanship, material diversity, and conceptual scope, these artists blur the boundaries between the myth, the cosmos, the imaginary, and the everyday. Like magicians or space/time travelers, they reveal zoomorphic hybrids, primarily deers, that allure the viewer into the worlds of deepened connections and new possibilities.

Uta Bekaia uses textile, ceramic, embroidery, gold, and gemstones to create sculptures that capture the dream-like states and imaginations of the child's innocence and joy. Small-scale mosaic pieces on the wall are assembled by hand-made ceramic tiles and depict celestial bodies, spaceships, and other creatures. Levani's "iii. the goddexx" carries the quality of an ancient deity, staring incisively across the times. Assembled from an antique saddle, vintage jewelry, stainless steel, wood, glass, neon, and antlers," I think of my process as grafting, a merging of the opposites -organic with inorganic, ancient with something very new to create new forms of life" - notes the artist. The large-scale multi-panel painting in liquid mirror depicts the Tree of Life—a recurrent theme in Levani's work. Inspired by medieval stone carvings, the painting contains other motifs of their vocabulary. The palm tree leaves are symbols of eternal life and the cut-out alphabet from their childhood. Inspired by the same alphabet shape is Levani's collaboration with Papuna - a sculptural modular furniture in marble shown to the public for the first time.

On April 10th, preceding the opening of the EXPOCHICAGO, Uta Bekaia and Levani present their new collaborative performance at the "Costume and Collapse" - screening and conversation with Nick Cave and Chaos (Uta Bekaia, Levani, Lucas de Lima), hosted by the Logan Center for the Arts, The University of Chicago and organized by Hoda El Shakry, Leah Feldman, and Payam Sharifi (Slavs and Tatars).

EXPOSURE section of EXPOCHICAGO features a curated selection of emerging artists in solo and two-person presentations. Rosario Güiraldes, Curator of Visual Arts at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, curates the EXPOSURE 2024 exhibitors.

Uta Bekaia's (b. Tbilisi, Georgia) practice revolves around the speculative recreation of ancestral rituals reimagined for a Queer utopian future. Drawing inspiration from traditional crafts, Bekaia creates elaborate wearable sculptures, ceramics, tapestries, and objects assembled into immersive installations, films, and live performances. Bekaia studied Industrial Design at Tbilisi Mtsire Academy. He has been awarded the residences at ART OMI, Museum of Art and Design MAD, NY; Garikula, Georgia; His work has been shown at Mies van der Rohe Pavilion, Barcelona; The Pickle Bar (Slavs and Tatars), Berlin, Kimball Art Center, UT; Museum of Modern Art, Tbilisi; Kyiv Biennial in Istanbul and Kyiv; Silk Museum, Tbilisi; The Lodge Gallery, NY; Center for Contemporary Art, Batumi; among others. He has staged parades for the Tbilisi City Hall Tbilisoba Festival, Book Capital of the World Opening Ceremony, TurnPark, and ArtPark, among others. Bekaia's work has been written about in publications such as W Magazine, Fucking Young! MoMA NY [Post], ArtAsia Pacific, Huffington Post, and The Art Newspapers, among others. Bekaia is a founding member of the Tbilisi-based queer creative collective Fungus.

Levani (Levan Mindiashvili, b. Tbilisi, Georgia) is a transdisciplinary artist who creates immersive installations, sculptures, films, neon, and images that are inspired by the examples of radical transformations and address questions of identity, collectivity, and world-building. Levani graduated with an MFA from Buenos Aires National University of Arts (2010) and a BFA from Tbilisi State Academy of Arts (2003). They had exhibited extensively at the institutions and venues at the Georgian National Museum, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Socrates Sculpture Park, National Art Museum of China, EFA Project Space, BRIC Biennial, Tartu Art Museum, Yerevan Folk Arts Museum, Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space, Artists Alliance Inc., Kunsthalle Tbilisi, Marisa Newman Projects, NARS Foundation, Silk Museum, and more. Levani is a recipient of the Artists Alliance Inc. LES studio residency program; Socrates Sculpture Park Fellowship; Peter S. Reed Foundation Grant; NYFA Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program fellowship; Creative Time X Summit Grant; AIM Fellowship of the Bronx Museum of the Arts; NARS Foundation Studio Residency; and the National Endowments for the Arts. Levani's work has been reviewed in publications such as Frieze, Art in America, The Brooklyn Rail, HYPERALLERGIC, The Art Newspaper, BOMB, ART PAPERS, ArtAsiaPacific, PIN– UP, HuffPost, OSMOS, and more.

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EXPOCHICAGO 2024

NAVY PIER | CHICAGO

VIP PREVIEW

Thursday, April 11 | 12:00 noon – 9:00pm

OPENING

Thursday, April 11 | 6:00–9:00pm   


FAIR HOURS

Friday, April 12 | 11:00am – 7:00pm


Saturday, April 13 | 11:00am – 7:00pm


Sunday, April 14 | 11:00am – 6:00pm

INQUIRIES

marisa@marisanewman.com

MORE INFO

www.expochicago.com