Travel with Prometheus through the magical worlds of Georgia’s Brueghel, Mamuka Dideba.
My chief goal is to transform the mundane and the realistic into something special and elevated. (Mamuka Dideba)
Mamuka Dideba returns with new works since his last critically acclaimed solo exhibition in 2019. Urban Allusions, takes viewers on a metaphorical journey that is loosely based on Italo Calvino's 1972 novel 'Invisible Cities'.
Dideba is a master of figurative and abstract. He paints in the same imprimatura technique used by Leonardo da Vinci, giving his works an inner glow. The art of Mamuka Dideba is a unique expression of the wonder, subtle humour, and the often surreal and warm philosophical outlook that is quintessential of the wondrous country of Georgia where he lives and works.
A rare master of the figurative and the abstract, Dideba paints in exquisite Renaissance technique that lights up the canvas from within and requires enormous skill and patience. Inspired by the Old Masters, Dideba creates nuanced characters who seem to walk off the canvas while remaining fixed in their own world, at an indeterminate time and place. Dideba completes a painting only when he senses the figure is alive, as if about to start a conversation
Where Calvino uses language to contemplate on the nature of human civilisation through poetic conversations, Mamuka Dideba conjures visual dialogues between past memories and future aspirations. Dideba has been dubbed Georgia's Brueghel for his humorous critique of human behaviour and deviation from realistic proportions.
Born in 1968 in Tbilisi, Georgia, Dideba studied at the prestigious Nikoladze School of Art and the Tbilisi State Art Academy. Widely exhibited internationally, Dideba’s work was shortlisted for the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition. His first solo exhibition in London was with Katrine Levin Galleries at Shapero Modern in Mayfair, in 2019.
An e-catalogue and a print catalogue of the exhibition will be available.
The exhibition comprises over 26 works, created specifically for the exhibition concept. Of these, 3 are figurative and the remainder abstracted. The dimensions range from 110 x 100cm, to 70 x 65cm, to 55 x 50cm to small works each 60 x 45cm. The small works are independent paintings that when put together combine into a comprehensive mosaic of an urban allusion.
Mamuka Dideba Urban Allusions: 2 - 14 September 2024
Katrine Levin Galleries at Marie Jose Gallery, 16 Victoria Grove | South Kensington | W8 5RW
Gallery Open Times: Monday – Saturday, 11am – 6pm
Further Information: Exhibitions — KATRINE LEVIN GALLERIES