Rusudan Khizanishvili
Interview and GalleryWe have an endless power and braveness because we did and do change the world, everything I do is about our mission on the Planet.





What are your current obsessions?
If in the beginning of my artistic career I was thinking about my personal, recognizable, language, then after acquiring it I am challenged with the language of messages. How I can bring and emphasize ideas onto the canvases and explain to spectators the main questions I have as well as the answers I would love to have. The main obsession that occupies me now is: How can we connect with each other being on the same or different levels of viewing the world?
How do you view the relationship—symbolic and/or literal—between humans and animals?
There are always some stories in my paintings, I always make series about some particular narratives. I love to paint certain elements of myths, religious series, or depiction of flowers, but the main character always remains the human being. Mostly all my works are about connection and/or disconnection of humans with the past, present and future; connection or loss of it with Nature and the animal world. There is always some search for the role of humans, how they are influenced by the surrounding world and how they change it in turn.
The main obsession that occupies me now is: How can we connect with each other being on the same or different levels of viewing the world?


Much of your work, such as “Thousands of Eyes, Thousands of Feelings,” suggests a narrative. Could you describe your process for this artwork? When did the narrative emerge?
This painting is about our supernatural powers; the plot sends us back to prehistoric times. Well, all these paintings have memory as their main driving narrative force. We collectively forgot Nature, we forgot that we are in a very close connection with it. We forgot that in the prehistoric times we had a deep intuition and could predict the future, read thoughts, and even use the same language as animals.

Will you tell us about your artwork, “Producing the New Body”?
This work has a feministic undertone. It is about how we are learning our bodies anew after they change with pregnancy. Can we accept the body or maybe we need to make some change? Or maybe we have gotten new skills and become more powerful.



Do other art forms inform your work or keep you company? Do you have favorite books and/or music?
Literature plays an important role in this. The first step I take with a new work is I think of a sentence that centers a painting around it. Inside my mind it always comes in English, probably as certain homage to American novelists and poets as they have considerably influenced me over the years. Steinbeck, Faulkner, Kerouac, Plath, Whitman and many other classics of the American writing tradition act as creators of the first outline for my art. This tradition of literature taught me honesty and differentiation of who I want to be and what I want to say. As them I am trying to be very open in my works and express what is hidden deep within me.
What is an important message you hope to carry to your audience?
I adore the shape of human bodies and the shapes of animals also, as well the beauty of human souls. In the chaotic strive for attention and political causes we are missing how sensitive and amazing we are; each human represents a separate universe for me. We have an endless power and braveness because we did and do change the world, everything I do is about our mission on the Planet.
Has your relationship to art changed the way that you view spaces around you?
Yes, of course.
What is the philosophy behind your aesthetic?
It’s a kind of endless conversation with the World I live in: how the World impresses and influences me and what is the next step of the dialogue.
Where can we find more of your work?
There are some web platforms you can see my work: Artsy and ArtLand, also I am currently working on updating my website so you can see everything in one place.
Rusudan Khizanishvili (1979) lives and paints in Tbilisi, Georgia. She has received her two BFAs in Painting from J.Nikoladze Art School and from Tbilisi State Academy of Art. In 2004 Rusudan received her MA in Film Studies from Tbilisi State Academy of Art. Over the past fifteen years Khizanishvili has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions including Museum of Modern Art Tbilisi, Museum of Literature of Georgia, Tbilisi State Silk Museum, Mark Rothko Foundation, Daugavapils, Latvia, Galerie Am Roten Hof, Vienna, Austria, Arundel Contemporary, Arundel, UK, New Image Art Gallery, Santa Monica, USA; Kunstverein Villa Wessel Iserlohn, Germany; Norty Paris, Triumph Gallery, Moscow, Assembly Room, New York, USA, Window Project, Tbilisi. In 2015 Khizanishvili represented Georgia among five other artists at the 56th Venice Art Biennale. Her works are presented in the collection of the Georgian National Museum; private collection of Stefan Simchowitz, LA; Breus Foundation, Moscow.