On view at
291 Grand Street, New York, NY, 10002
By appointment only 4/9 & 4/10
Parmen Daushvili’s paintings are survivors of their own making - they are over-painted, scraped, sanded, re-painted and transformed. Daushvili began painting in 2003, but it wasn’t until after fleeing Tbilisi for the United Kingdom that he became a full time painter, focusing initially on portrait commissions he received via social media.
He now finds himself inspired by his immediate surroundings, his friends and family, the light that seeps into his Kensington studio or the passerbyers he views from his window. Daushvili’s compositions are often subjected to a rigorous process of reduction, stripping them down to their essence until only the faintest traces remain. His brushwork is economical and his palette somber and measured. The resulting paintings radiate a sense of displacement, otherness and longing.
In the artist’s words, “My paintings are precisely what they represent. They come from my stream of consciousness of no particular origin or special interest and my practice is focused on capturing the moment when these mundane subjects become special to me. I don’t see a reason to speak of my personal life or anything beyond what you can see in my paintings and for that reason I don’t give any interviews. If you find something in my paintings that becomes special to you, we have already spoken.”
Daushvili’s work has been included in the annual exhibitions of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, the Royal Society of British Artists and the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibitions. He was selected for inclusion in the BP Portrait Award in 2014, 2019 and 2020 at London’s National Portrait Gallery. Recent solo exhibitions include; Polina Berlin Gallery, NY and Grand Gallery, Malmo Sweden (2023). Recent group exhibitions include; Superzoom, Paris, France and 4710 Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia (2023).