Studio, Arutin-Saiatnova Street 17, Tbilisi, 2012

This photograph shows me at work in my studio at Arutin-Saiatnova Street 17 in Old Tbilisi in 2012.

I worked in this studio from 2008 to 2019. It was an important place in my life and practice, where many paintings, digital works, and thematic series, like the Infamous Horse Thief from Saiat-Nova-Street were created. In 2019, I also minted my first digital works for SuperRare there.

The painting visible in progress is Pack Horses New York City, which was acquired in 2023 by the Georgian Museum of Fine Arts in Tbilisi.

The room contains many traces of my artistic world at that time: paintings, works on paper, the lightbox Desinformation, a photocopy of Vladimir Mayakovsky, an original photograph by George Tsagareli, two small works by Avto Meskhi, and a Xerox copier that was an important tool in my work.

I am wearing an Uzbek fur hat from Bukhara, and copies of my photographs of Uzbek Buzkashi can also be seen in the studio.

For me, this image is more than a studio photograph. It is a self-portrait of a room, a period, and a way of working.