Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze. Photo: Maka Kukulava, at.ge

 

Thea Djordjadze (*1971) creates sculptures and installations of singular, idiosyncratic poetry. Her works are suffused with multiple art-historical references, while at the same time they respond to the particular conditions of the exhibition setting. The fragile, process-driven character of the Berlin-based, Georgian artist’s practice dissolves the notion of the artwork as a fixed entity. Her sculptures and installations offer viewers a spatial, physical and psychological experience, casting an unanticipated light on particular environments.

 

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Djordjadze’s installations combine constructed and found elements. The materials she uses are drawn mostly from everyday objects, ranging from rigid wood and metal constructions to amorphous papier-mâché, textile and foam objects. Painted glass panels appear as frequently in her works as her metal sculptures, which resemble three-dimensional drawings of space. Her distinctive plaster sculpture paintings are another important body of work—plaster-filled mahogany frames with sketchily painted surfaces. While many of Djordjadze’s objects have the look of furniture, they in fact are non-functional, hybrid objects, somewhere between art and apparent utility. Viewers are confronted with carpets, folding screens, and shelves, but also architectural elements such as functionless canopies, self-built showcases or exhibition displays for showing works by other artists. Her objects and installations investigate the idiosyncrasies of particular exhibition conditions.

The artist exposes the objects she uses to a process of constant change and exploration, of looking and understanding, feeling-out, selection and rejection. Djordjadze’s exhibitions only keep things in place for a limited period of time, suspending them in a transitory relationship to the gallery or space and its architecture. This open-ended method creates a state of uncertainty that gives her work an incomparable freedom, as well as a persistent air of uncertainty.

The resulting installations are multi-layered spaces that contain numerous echoes and memories of other places, bringing together a multitude of temporal planes and layers of perception. Djordjadze’s aesthetic vocabulary oscillates nimbly between minimalism, architectural history and conceptual art. It draws on aspects of art by the Georgian avant-garde of the 1920s and discovers an experimental space somewhere between Le Corbusier and Donald Judd. The art-historical echoes are never explicit, however. Instead, viewers might get the impression that the diaphanous memories of other spaces, and other eras, are overlapping with the immediate experience of the exhibition space.

Djordjadze’s installations radically question the notion of the “white cube” as a supposedly value-neutral exhibition space and give viewers the feeling of having entered the artwork itself. The works are ambiguous interiors that do not operate according to the usual rules and laws of interiors, depending instead on a subtle dissection of how we perceive space. Djordjadze manages to cross nothing less than a liminal threshold in viewers’ spatial perception. Her installations sometimes resemble sketches for an archaeology of inner landscapes: sketches of memories, desires and feelings made spatial.

 

Thea Djordjadze: one is so public, and the other, so private
Kunst Museum Winterthur, September 7–November 17, 2019

 

Works
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2021

Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2021
Mixed media
dimensions variable

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Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze
take me my lie away, 2019

Thea Djordjadze
take me my lie away, 2019
Steel, acrylic glass, print on copper
135 × 145.5 × 33 cm
53 1/8 × 57 1/4 × 13 inches

More views
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2021

Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2021
Wood, plaster, paint
130 × 130 × 3.5 cm (framed)
51 1/8 × 51 1/8 × 1 3/8 inches (framed)

Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze
She didn't have friends, children, sex, religion, marriage, success, a salary or a fear of death. She worked, 2014

Thea Djordjadze
She didn't have friends, children, sex, religion, marriage, success, a salary or a fear of death. She worked, 2014
Wood, steel, foam, paint, plaster
225 × 420 × 70 cm
88 5/8 × 165 3/8 × 27 5/8 inches

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Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze
As sagas sa, 2012

Thea Djordjadze
As sagas sa, 2012
Fabric, paint, foam, wood
approx. 250 × 300 × 600 cm
approx. 98 3/8 × 118 × 236 1/8 inches
Installation view, documenta 13, Kassel, 2012

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Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze
Space under, 2016

Thea Djordjadze
Space under, 2016
Plexiglass, paint, wood
700 × 420 × 47 cm
275 5/8 × 165 3/8 × 18 1/2 inches
Installation view, MoMA PS1, New York, 2016
Photo:

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Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze
The Ceiling of a Courtyard, 2019

Thea Djordjadze
The Ceiling of a Courtyard, 2019
Aluminum, sanded
168.9 x 70 x 28 cm
66 1/2 x 27 5/8 x 11 inches

More views
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2013

Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2013
Steel, lacquer, foam
39 × 208 × 63 cm
15 3/8 × 82 × 24 7/8 inches
Installation view, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, 2013

Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze
Explain away, ე.ი., 2009

Thea Djordjadze
Explain away, ე.ი., 2009
Wood, hardboard, carpet, paint, clay, fabric
360 × 505 × 906 cm
141 3/4 × 198 3/4 × 356 3/4 inches

More views
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze
A Guide on Wrong Path, 2014/2021

Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2014
Painted steel, wicker, paint, cardboard, clay, plaster, wood, transparent paper
240 × 400 × 70 cm
94 1/2 × 157 1/2 × 27 5/8 inches

More views
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2014

Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2014
Brass
70 × 120 × 18 cm
27 5/8 × 47 1/4 × 7 inches

More views
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2015

Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2015
Found loading pallet, caster wheels, plastic, rubber, plywood, soil, cheese plants, steel, cable ties, blown glass, lighting element
270 × 120 × 259 cm
106 1/4 × 47 1/4 × 102 inches
with plant: 350 × 190 × 259 cm
with plant: 137 7/8 × 74 7/8 × 102 inches

More views
Details
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2021
Mixed media
dimensions variable

Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2021
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
all building as making
Installation view, Gropius Bau, Berlin, September 18, 2021–January 16, 2022

Thea Djordjadze
all building as making
Installation view, Gropius Bau, Berlin, September 18, 2021–January 16, 2022
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
all building as making
Installation view, Gropius Bau, Berlin, September 18, 2021–January 16, 2022

Thea Djordjadze
all building as making
Installation view, Gropius Bau, Berlin, September 18, 2021–January 16, 2022
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
all building as making
Installation view, Gropius Bau, Berlin, September 18, 2021–January 16, 2022

Thea Djordjadze
all building as making
Installation view, Gropius Bau, Berlin, September 18, 2021–January 16, 2022
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
all building as making
Installation view, Gropius Bau, Berlin, September 18, 2021–January 16, 2022

Thea Djordjadze
all building as making
Installation view, Gropius Bau, Berlin, September 18, 2021–January 16, 2022
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
all building as making
Installation view, Gropius Bau, Berlin, September 18, 2021–January 16, 2022

Thea Djordjadze
all building as making
Installation view, Gropius Bau, Berlin, September 18, 2021–January 16, 2022
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
take me my lie away, 2019
Steel, acrylic glass, print on copper
135 × 145.5 × 33 cm
53 1/8 × 57 1/4 × 13 inches

Thea Djordjadze
take me my lie away, 2019
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
take me my lie away, 2019 (detail)

Thea Djordjadze
take me my lie away, 2019
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
take me my lie away, 2019 (detail)

Thea Djordjadze
take me my lie away, 2019
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2021
Wood, plaster, paint
130 × 130 × 3.5 cm (framed)
51 1/8 × 51 1/8 × 1 3/8 inches (framed)

Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2021
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
She didn't have friends, children, sex, religion, marriage, success, a salary or a fear of death. She worked, 2014
Wood, steel, foam, paint, plaster
225 × 420 × 70 cm
88 5/8 × 165 3/8 × 27 5/8 inches

Thea Djordjadze
She didn't have friends, children, sex, religion, marriage, success, a salary or a fear of death. She worked, 2014
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
She didn't have friends, children, sex, religion, marriage, success, a salary or a fear of death. She worked, 2014 (detail)

Thea Djordjadze
She didn't have friends, children, sex, religion, marriage, success, a salary or a fear of death. She worked
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
As sagas sa, 2012
Fabric, paint, foam, wood
approx. 250 × 300 × 600 cm
approx. 98 3/8 × 118 × 236 1/8 inches
Installation view, documenta 13, Kassel, 2012

Thea Djordjadze
As sagas sa, 2012
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
As sagas sa, 2012 (detail)
Installation view, documenta 13, Kassel, 2012

Thea Djordjadze
As sagas sa, 2012
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
As sagas sa, 2012 (detail)
Installation view, documenta 13, Kassel, 2012

Thea Djordjadze
As sagas sa, 2012
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
As sagas sa, 2012 (detail)
Installation view, documenta 13, Kassel, 2012

Thea Djordjadze
As sagas sa, 2012
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
As sagas sa, 2012 (detail)
Installation view, documenta 13, Kassel, 2012

Thea Djordjadze
As sagas sa, 2012
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
As sagas sa, 2012 (detail)
Installation view, documenta 13, Kassel, 2012

Thea Djordjadze
As sagas sa, 2012
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
Space under, 2016
Plexiglass, paint, wood
700 × 420 × 47 cm
275 5/8 × 165 3/8 × 18 1/2 inches
Installation view, MoMA PS1, New York, 2016
Photo:

Thea Djordjadze
Space under, 2016
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
Space under, 2016 (detail)
Installation view, MoMA PS1, New York, 2016

Thea Djordjadze
Space under, 2016
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
The Ceiling of a Courtyard, 2019
Aluminum, sanded
168.9 x 70 x 28 cm
66 1/2 x 27 5/8 x 11 inches

Thea Djordjadze
The Ceiling of a Courtyard, 2019
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
The Ceiling of a Courtyard, 2019
Installation view, one is so public, and the other, so private, Kunst Museum Winterthur, 2019

Thea Djordjadze
The Ceiling of a Courtyard, 2019
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
The Ceiling of a Courtyard, 2019 (detail)

Thea Djordjadze
The Ceiling of a Courtyard, 2019
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2013
Steel, lacquer, foam
39 × 208 × 63 cm
15 3/8 × 82 × 24 7/8 inches
Installation view, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, 2013

Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2013
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
Explain away, ე.ი., 2009
Wood, hardboard, carpet, paint, clay, fabric
360 × 505 × 906 cm
141 3/4 × 198 3/4 × 356 3/4 inches

Thea Djordjadze
Explain away, ე.ი., 2009
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
Explain away, ე.ი., 2009 (detail)


Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
Explain away, ე.ი., 2009 (detail)

Thea Djordjadze
Explain away, ე.ი., 2009
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2014
Painted steel, wicker, paint, cardboard, clay, plaster, wood, transparent paper
240 × 400 × 70 cm
94 1/2 × 157 1/2 × 27 5/8 inches

Thea Djordjadze
A Guide on Wrong Path, 2014/2021
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2014 (detail)

Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2014
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2014 (detail)

Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2014
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2014
Brass
70 × 120 × 18 cm
27 5/8 × 47 1/4 × 7 inches

Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2014
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2014 (detail)

Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2014
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2014 (detail)

Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2014
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2015
Found loading pallet, caster wheels, plastic, rubber, plywood, soil, cheese plants, steel, cable ties, blown glass, lighting element
270 × 120 × 259 cm
106 1/4 × 47 1/4 × 102 inches
with plant: 350 × 190 × 259 cm
with plant: 137 7/8 × 74 7/8 × 102 inches

Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2015
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2015 (detail)

Thea Djordjadze
Untitled, 2015
Details
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Current and Upcoming
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze, Untitled, 2016
© Thea Djordjadze/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023. Photo: Timo Ohler

Thea Djordjadze
the ceiling of a courtyard
WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Bruxelles
October 7, 2023–January 7, 2024

Thea Djordjadze creates a new body of work, examining and challenging not only the formal and material qualities of the post-industrial architecture of the WIELS building, but also its institutional context. This is a continuation of her interest in display, in presentation devices such as frames and vitrines – which often feature as integral elements of her work – or, more broadly, in the conditions for visibility.

Link

Niko Pirosmani
Group Exhibition
Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel
Through January 28, 2024

Georgian artist Niko Pirosmani (1862–1918) is a legend: (for now) unknown to many, he is almost fanatically revered by others. As the exhibition will show, Pirosmani was an outstanding exponent of early modern art. To a rare extent, already in his lifetime Pirosmani’s art spoke to all, from people on the street and in taverns to avant-garde artists and writers. With just a few brushstrokes, he transformed the quotidian into the exceptional, creating icons of glowing intensity. His art bridged worlds, it celebrated a feeling of belonging and dedication. With around fifty rarely seen masterpieces from the holdings of the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi, the exhibition provides an introduction to Pirosmani’s artistic world.

Link
Thea Djordjadze
Niko Pirosmani, Giraffe, Georgian National Museum
© Infinitart Foundation. Photo: Roberto Bigano
Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze, A Guide on Wrong Path, 2014/2021
© Thea Djordjadze/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023. Photo: Timo Ohler

Home Is Where You’re Happy
Group Exhibition
Haus Mödrath – Räume für Kunst, Kerpen
October 8, 2023–August 25, 2024

Haus Mödrath has a long and eventful history, functioning first as a stately home, then successively as a maternity home, a children's and a refugee shelter, a Nazi training center, and the home of a family with 15 children. Today, it belongs to an art collector who has opened up the space to exhibitions but wishes to remain otherwise anonymous. But what if the house itself cannot help but revive its resident ghosts? What if any art displayed inside cannot help but appear like an accumulation of strange furniture, paintings, and objects that reveals something about what happened here – encircling the landlord in his or her absence?
The work of the participating artists all directly or indirectly addresses the themes of home, domesticity, and family life, with all its happy (and tricky) implications. And the exhibition’s title, Home Is Where You're Happy, is borrowed from a song written by Charles Manson, whose childhood home was anything but happy, and who eventually founded his own murderous "Family."

Link
Exhibitions at Sprüth Magers
Thea Djordjadze

Mondi Possibili
A Tribute to Pasquale Leccese (1957–2023)
August 31–September 14, 2023
Seoul

Henni Alftan, John Baldessari, Cao Fei, Thomas Demand, Thea Djordjadze, Lucy Dodd, Robert Elfgen, Peter Fischli  David Weiss, Sylvie Fleury, Jenny Holzer, Donald Judd, Karen Kilimnik, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, David Ostrowski, Michail Pirgelis, Sterling Ruby, Thomas Scheibitz, Andreas Schulze, Hyun-Sook Song, Robert Therrien, Rosemarie Trockel, Kaari Upson, Andrea Zittel

Mondi Possibili highlights the interplay between art and design and explores the many ways in which experimentation with material, technique and scale can reveal the hidden narratives, quiet drama and humor in the everyday items that furnish our lives as well as our imaginations. Connected through a paradigm of the possible, all artworks on show examine familiar objects – citing, celebrating, adapting or appropriating them – offering surprising, playful or unsettling approaches that open up a range of “possible worlds.” This will be the fourth edition of Sprüth Magers’ Mondi Possibili – first titled by Pasquale Leccese (1957–2023), as a tribute to his lifetime achievement – showcasing significant themes in the selected artists’ works as well as the gallery’s longstanding heritage. Its three previous iterations were presented in 1989, 2006 and 2007 in Cologne, where the gallery’s history is firmly rooted, and art and design have intersected for many decades.

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Sprüth Magers x Artadia

A Benefit Exhibition to Support the Next Generation of Artists
Thea Djordjadze, Lucy Dodd, Karen Kilimnik, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Pamela Rosenkranz, Analia Saban, Rosemarie Trockel
April 4–April 22, 2023
New York

Bringing together a group of outstanding female artists in an innovative and collaborative effort to support the next generation, Sprüth Magers is pleased to announce a benefit exhibition to raise funds for the non-profit organization Artadia. Through grantmaking, community-building and advocacy, Artadia strengthens the invaluable role visual artists play in our society.

The exhibition comprises influential contemporary voices across multiple generations, reflecting both the discourse on art, gender and power that is firmly embedded in Sprüth Magers’ history and its enduring support of pioneering female figures. Featured will be works by artists who are all part of the gallery’s dynamic roster, including Thea Djordjadze, Lucy Dodd, Karen Kilimnik, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Pamela Rosenkranz, Analia Saban and Rosemarie Trockel. All funds raised will go towards the impactful Artadia Awards program.

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Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

Mies in Mind
John Bock, Thomas Demand, Thea Djordjadze, Jenny Holzer, Kraftwerk, Reinhard Mucha, Otto Piene, Thomas Ruff, Thomas Scheibitz
August 20–September 4, 2021
Berlin

As part of the exhibition parcours Mies In Mind, initiated by INDEX Berlin and taking place on the occasion of the reopening of the Neue Nationalgalerie, Sprüth Magers is showcasing works by John Bock, Thomas Demand, Thea Djordjadze, Jenny Holzer, Reinhard Mucha, Otto Piene, Thomas Ruff and Thomas Scheibitz in a group exhibition that pays tribute to the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and his famous building.

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Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
if I were an early person
April 9–June 1, 2019
Los Angeles

The work of Thea Djordjadze concerns itself, first and foremost, with the poetics and particularities of space. She combines a variety of artistic, industrial, and unconventional materials to produce works full of contrasts and complexity, which she puts into conversation with the architecture and atmosphere of her exhibition spaces through intimate, considered arrangements. Each of her projects is thus ephemeral in nature, open to future reconfiguration.

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Rosemarie Trockel / Thea Djordjadze
Un soir, j’ai assis la beauté sur mes genoux. And I found her bitter. And I hurt her.
July 7–August 26, 2017
Berlin

Un soir, j'ai assis la beauté sur mes genoux. And I found her bitter and I hurt her is a joint exhibition by the long-time collaborators Rosemarie Trockel and Thea Djordjadze. It is the first time that the two installations from 2007 and 2008 are on view in Berlin. The works have an allegorical nature that explores a number of themes pertinent to contemporary art. Issues around the boundaries of media, and the artwork as a fixed concept are called into question, as well as the exhibition space as a representational frame.

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Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

Thea Djordjadze
listening the pressure that surrounds you
April 30–June 25, 2016
Berlin

Interiors are sites of existential symbolism. They are the place where a child first clashes with the world – a location of real and symbolic protection for the ego. They collect the sediments of cultural history and of our own lives, marking an interspace between us and the world. Few contemporary artists have so cannily, idiosyncratically explored the existential experience of the interior as Thea Djordjadze, whose expansive sculptural installations combine constructed and found elements into intuitive arrangements.

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Thea Djordjadze
Spoons are different
September 1–September 29, 2012
London

For her multipartite sculptural ensembles, Djordjadze uses everyday materials such as foam, steel, fabric, glass and plaster along with found objects which refer to the classical materials of sculpture but also the traditions of arts and crafts. The artist’s sculptures themselves are situated between form and anti-form, a combination of stable structures and fragile, gestural renderings typically exhibited together in a carefully choreographed setting. The installations, incomplete and fragmentary in character, oscillate between open spatial designs and dense performative gestures, emphasizing the contrasts between mental and actual interior spaces, between intimacy and public presence.

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Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

The Art of Narration Changes with Time
Thea Djordjadze, Moyra Davey, Margaret Salmon, Rosalind Nashashibi, Joao Maria Gusmao y Pedro Paiva, Alex Hubbard, Peter Coffin, Klaus Weber, Oskar Tuazon
curated by Gigiotto Del Vecchio
June 8–September 10, 2011
Berlin

The Art of Narration Changes with Time is a group exhibition curated by Gigiotto Del Vecchio. The exhibition juxtaposes a selection of works by Peter Coffin, Moyra Davey, Thea Djordjadze, Alex Hubbard, Rosalind Nashashibi, João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva, Margaret Salmon, Oscar Tuazon and Klaus Weber.

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Thea Djordjadze
Explain away, ე.ი.
September 22–November 7, 2009
Berlin

Standing at the center of ‘Explain away, ე.ი.' is a wooden construction, a space which may be viewed and entered, a house or the fragment of a house. A site where the ordered delineations between living and working, between private and public have been canceled. Arrangements of things both objective and non-objective, which receive every person with a relaxed easiness and equanimity, regardless of whether he attempts to decipher them or not. Delicate, amorphous forms made of clay, plaster or papier-mâché enter into contact with sketchy paintings and dysfunctional constructions which bear witness to a profound investigation of modernism.

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Thea Djordjadze

Rosemarie Trockel / Thea Djordjadze
Un soir, j’ai assis la beauté sur mes genoux. And I found her bitter. And I hurt her.
March 6–April 19, 2008
Munich

“Un soir, j'ai assis la beauté sur mes genoux. And I found her bitter and I hurt her,” presents a collaboration between Thea Djordjadze and Rosemarie Trockel. Having realized several exhibition projects together in the past, the two artists seek each time to address concerns about the processes of artistic creation, questioning the freedoms and limitations it entails. Drawing the title of the exhibition from Arthur Rimbaud’s poem `La Saison en Enfer´the artists equally challenge and subvert our expectations of art – what we think it should provide and the promise of beauty we often expect it to entail.

Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

Rosemarie Trockel / Thea Djordjadze
Un soir, j’ai assis la beauté sur mes genoux. And I found her bitter and I hurt her.
October 9–November 10, 2007
London

Having realized several exhibition projects together in the past, the two artists seek each time to address concerns about the processes of artistic creation, questioning the freedoms and limitations it entails. Drawing the title of the exhibition from Arthur Rimbaud’s poem ’La Saison en Enfer’ the artists equally challenge and subvert our expectations of art – what we think it should provide and the promise of beauty we often expect it to entail.

Playing with the scale and vitrine like qualities of the front gallery the first installation is constructed so that the virtually monochrome canvases appear to be floating on water, their surfaces reflected against the black painted walls of the gallery. The elements of the construction overwhelm and simultaneously dissolve into the background so the whole work itself almost eludes the viewer.

Viewing Room
Robert Elfgen, Gerda Scheepers, Thea Djordjadze
April 19–May 26, 2007
Cologne

Thea Djordjadze

Mondi Possibili
Thea Djordjadze, Peter Fischli  David Weiss, Claus Föttinger, Thomas Grünfeld, Jenny Holzer, Stefan Kern, Joseph Kosuth, Louise Lawler, Michail Pirgelis, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Thomas Scheibitz, Andreas Schulze, Cindy Sherman, Rosemarie Trockel, Franz West
January 17–April 7, 2006
Cologne

As part of the PASSAGEN, the supporting programme of the International Furniture Fair in Cologne, at the beginning of the year Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers present a new edition of the exhibition “Mondi Possibili”. The works on display deal with the subject of furniture from a variety of angles: as citation, as homage, as adaptation, or as copy. Others are usable objects that hardly differ from their reference objects in the domain of design or furniture.

Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

7
Thea Djordjadze, Robert Elfgen, Daniel Man, Gerda Scheepers, Gert & Uwe Tobias, Martin Wöhrl
August 3–September 20, 2005
London

Thea Djordjadze, Gerda Scheepers, Robert Elfgen
Thea Djordjadze, Robert Elfgen, Gerda Scheepers
September 10–October 30, 2004
Munich

Thea Djordjadze
Thea Djordjadze

20th Anniversary Show
John Baldessari, Alighiero Boetti, George Condo, Walter Dahn, Thomas Demand, Thea Djordjadze, Peter Fischli  David Weiss, Sylvie Fleury, Andreas Gursky, Jenny Holzer, Gary Hume, Axel Kasseböhmer, Karen Kilimnik, Astrid Klein, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Jean-Luc Mylayne, Nina Pohl, Richard Prince, Ed Ruscha, Frances Scholz, Andreas Schulze, Cindy Sherman, Rosemarie Trockel, Andrea Zittel, Philip-Lorca diCorcia
April 25–October 18, 2003
Cologne

In 1983, Monika Sprüth opened her Cologne based gallery with a solo show by Andreas Schulze. Starting from the idea to establish a forum for young and unknown artists, the central focus of the gallery concept was developed in the discourse of the 80s. The gallery program was completed by recourses to artistic attitudes of the last 40 years. This research, motivated by reflection on contemporary art history, was more and more realized in cooperation with Philomene Magers who directed her Bonn gallery since 1992. After a few years of loose cooperation, Monika Sprüth Gallery and Philomene Magers Gallery aligned with each other after, and together the Monika Sprüth / Philomene Magers Gallery opened up in Munich in 1999.

Press

Thea Djordjadze. All building as making
Kunstforum International, article by Ronald Berg, January–February 2022

Unter Spannung / Under Tension
Monopol, Special Issue Berlin Art Week 2021, review by Boris Pofalla, September 2021

Thea Djordjadze. Kunst Museum Winterthur
Artforum International, review by Jacob Proctor, February 2020

Ausstellungspreis für Frankfurter Kunsthalle Portikus
Frankfurter Rundschau, article by Florian Leclerc, March 15, 2019

Frankfurt/Main THEA DJORDJADZE o portio n.
Kunstforum International, article by Christian Huther, November–December 2018

Thea Djordjadze If not Art… Art alone.
Georgia To See, article by Nino Gvalia, October 10, 2017

How to Understand the Spectral Minimalism of Thea Djordjadze’s Sculpture
Artspace, Artspace Editors, April 6, 2016

Shape Shifting: The migrating forms of Thea Djordjadze
Frieze, feature by Matthew Mclean, March 10, 2016

Biography

Thea Djordjadze (*1971, Tbilisi) lives and works in Berlin. Selected solo exhibitions include WIELS, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Brussels (2023), Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain (MAMC), Saint-Etienne (2022), Gropius Bau, Berlin (2021), Kunst Museum Winterthur (2019), Portikus, Frankfurt (2018), Pinakothek der Moderne, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich (2017), Secession Wien, Vienna (2016), MoMA PS1, New York (2016), South London Gallery (2015), MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA (2014), Aspen Art Museum, CO (2013), Malmö Konsthall (2012), The Common Guild Glasgow (2011), Kunsthalle Basel (2009) and Kunstverein Nürnberg/Albrecht Dürer Gesellschaft, Nuremberg (2008). In addition, important group exhibitions include Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2022), Tai Kwun-Centre for Heritage and Arts, Hongkong (2020), Deichtorhallen Hamburg (2019), Triennale di Milano (2017), Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich (2017), 56th Venice Biennale (2015), Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2014), 55th Venice Biennale (2013), Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2013), documenta 13, Kassel (2012), Sculpture Center, New York (2011), Hayward Gallery, London (2010) and the 5th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art (2008).

Education
2000 Master pupil with Rosemarie Trockel
1998–2001 Study with Rosemarie Trockel
1995–1997 Study with Dieter Krieg
1994–2001 Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Dusseldorf, DE
1995 MFA, Academia of Arts, Tbilisi
1993–1994 Gerrit Rietveld Akademie, Amsterdam, NL
1988–1993 Kunstakademie Tiflis, GE
Awards, Grants and Fellowships
2018 Dr. Marschner-Ausstellungspreis (for the exhibition 'o potio n.’ at Portikus, Frankfurt)
2015 Residency at South London Gallery, London, UK
2009 Kunstpreis der Böttcherstrasse in Bremen, Bremen, DE
2008 Katalogstipendium der Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stiftung,
Berlin, DE
Arbeitsstipendium, Kunststiftung NRW, Dusseldorf, DE
2007 Studio Voltaire, Artist residency, London, UK
2006 Sommerakademie, Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, CH
2004–2008 Atelier-Stipendium, Imhoff-Stiftung & Kunstverein Köln, Cologne, DE
2004 Stipendium für Bildende Künstlerinnen mit Kindern, NRW, DE
2001 Reise-Stipendium, SK Stiftung, Dusseldorf, DE
Peter-Mertes-Stipendium, Bonn, DE
Public Collections
Arten Foundation, Dusseldorf
Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO
Berlinische Galerie, Berlin
Boros Collection, Berlin
CNAP Centre national des arts plastiques, Paris
Essl Collection, Klosterneuburg
FNAC Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, Paris
FRAC Bourgogne, Dijon
FRAC des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou
KiCo Collection, Munich / Bonn
Kunst Museum Winterthur, Winterthur
Lenbachhaus, Munich
MAMC+ Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Staint-Etienne
Migros Museum, Zurich
Museum Ludwig, Cologne
Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin
Rubell Museum, Miami, FL
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY