Marina Murvanidze Mitchell is a Georgian American artist, who currently lives and works in London. Marina has exhibited in London, New York, Washington, DC, and Naples. She studied oil painting at the New York Academy of Art and Leah Lopez’s Atelier in NYC. Marina holds a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Art Academy London, MPP from Princeton University, and MA from Tbilisi State Institute of Foreign Languages. She has been selected for a 2022-24 LSM Art Award programme and her work is on display at the Liberty Specialty Market offices in London (Walkie-Talkie building). Dare to…! is her first exhibition in Georgia.
Dare to…!
Movement, places, and people who live outside their country of origin inspire my creativity. I am interested in how people adjust to change, how they often experience the present as a memory from the past searching for familiar in the unknown.
I explore this through constructed images using photography and painting as my main media.
Photography generates an image, which after the moment of exposure, becomes the past. Painting, on the other hand, is a process where oil – a tangible medium – crafts new reality suggesting the present. I use photography as my initial medium. In constructed images, I manipulate and extend it through merging with the painting digitally to create a link between past and the present.
“Dare to…!” is the title of one of my works presented here. Based on the principle of visual association with broken ties, broken relationships, and broken traditions, it questions the consequences of the decisions people make when they uproot their lives and move to another country. Notwithstanding all the losses, they dare to…leave, dare to…start a different life, driven by the excitement of new places, the thrill of movement, and the adventure of the unknown.
Using loosely connected images, I have created a non-linear narrative that reflects on my personal journey that started in 1997 when I moved to the US for a master’s degree at Princeton University.
We look forward to seeing you on the premises of George Chubinashvili National Research Centre for Georgian Art History and Heritage Preservation, 9/6 Atoneli St, Tbilisi 0105.
Date: 20.09.2023 at 17:00.
The gallery is open: Monday-Friday, 10:00-18:00.
The Exhibition will be on display until 24 September