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Lia Shvelidze
The Never-Ending Why, 2025
painted and sewn tights filled with synthetic cotton on canvas
50 x 40 cm
19-3/4 × 15-3/4 in
Born in 1959 in Tbilisi, Georgia, Lia Shvelidze is a painter whose practice draws on ancient cultural narratives, reinterpreting the feminine principle through a contemporary visual language rooted in figuration, symbolism, and color.
She studied painting and theatrical design at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts between 1979 and 1985 and began her independent artistic career during the Perestroika period. Early on, Shvelidze was actively involved with artist collectives such as 10th Floor and Marjanishvili Studio, participating in festivals and group exhibitions in Georgia and abroad between 1987 and 1991.
Shvelidze’s work centers on large-scale figurative compositions in which the female figure appears as an enduring cultural archetype—at once deity, idol, and contemporary presence. Her paintings combine clear linear drawing with expressive color fields, conditional backgrounds, textual elements, and carefully suggested environments. Through these layered constructions, she explores the evolving roles and representations of femininity across time, presenting woman as a continuous, multifaceted force rather than a fixed image.
Alongside her artistic practice, Shvelidze has played a significant role in art education and cultural organization. She has taught painting at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts and at the Visual Art, Architecture & Design School (VAADS) of Free University in Tbilisi. In 2006–2007, she founded the Association for the Support of Artists and The Art Studio for Everyone, initiating and organizing numerous international and local exhibitions, workshops, symposiums, and biennales involving both emerging and established artists.
To date, Shvelidze has held more than fifty solo and group exhibitions, including major solo presentations at the Museum of Fine Arts of Georgia (1994) and the Museum of Modern Art in Baku (2016), as well as the long-running Sit Down series at the Old Gallery (2000–2003). Her works are held in state and private museum collections in Georgia and internationally, and she continues an active artistic practice shaped by decades of exhibition-making, teaching, and cultural engagement.
Solo Exhibitions
2024 - Digital Sentimentality and Looking Inside Out, Fabrika Project Space, Tbilisi, Georgia
Notable Group Exhibitions
2025 - Edition 2: Self Image, Identica, Tbilisi Georgia
2025 - Group Exhibition organized by Art Gallery and Embassy of Hungary, Tbilisi, Georgia
2024 - Caravan Art Forum Kutaisi, International Contemporary Art Festival, Kutaisi, Georgia
2024 - A woman artist – the face of the era, Pesti Vigado, Budapest, Hungary
2023 - She, Novo Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia
2023 - Nakhichevan International Art Festival, Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan
2022 - What makes me human?, organized by the European Union (EU) and UNDP on Human Rights Day eve, Tbilisi, Georgia
2022 - The way (as) we are, Novo Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia
2022 - Tbilisi Art Fair (TAF), Tbilisi, Georgia
2022 - XX-XXI Georgian Art from Private Collections, Tbilisi National Museum, Tbilisi, Georgia
2022 - Georgian Artists to Ukrainian artists, for the Ukrainian Emergency Art Fund, Tbilisi, Georgia
2021 - Riga Art Fair, Riga, Latvia
2017 - Mersin International Festival, Mersin, Turkey
2017 - Georgian National Museum Karvasla, Tbilisi, Georgia
2016 - Vienna Contemporary, Vienna, Austria
2016 - Nakhichevan International Art Festival, Nakhichevan, Azerbaijan
2014 - Taza 1st Art Biennial of Contemporary Art, Taza, Morocco
2013 - Tashkent International Biennale, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
2012 - Reframing the 80s: Georgian art at the End of the 80s Beginning of the 90s., Georgian National Museum D. Shevardnadze National Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia
2012 - International symposium and show of the women artists, Famine Art, Italy
2008 Show of Two Artists: Lia Shvelidze and Mamuka
Tsetskhladze, Poland
2008 Dynasties, group show with Artist Bezhan Shvelidze,
Murtaz Shvelidze and Luka Tsetskhladze, Gallery Ratio,
Georgia
2006 The international Biennale of Modern Artm Meeting with Pirosmani, Georgia
2000 Second Gyumri Biennale, Armenia
1998 International symposium, Women’s Vision, Kyrgyzstan
1998 First Gyumri Biennale, Armenia
1994 Festival of Contemporary art, Sochi, Russia
1996 Exhibition By war, Central Artist House, Moscow, Russia
1992 Group show of Georgian artists at BROCK'S gallery
Barcelona, Spain
1991 America 500, group show in New Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia
1989 Exhibition of Georgian Avant Guard in a frame of the AICA International Symposium,
Georgia
1989 Georgian Avant Guard, Russia1988 Georgian Avant Garde , “Fransuaza Fridrich Gallery” Koln, Germany
1988-1989 1988 Narva Art Days, International festival of art, Estonia
1987 Group Exhibition of the “Marjanishvili Studio” members, “Artist House”, Georgia
1986 Exhibition of Georgian Avant Guard, Georgian National Museum of History, Georgia
1987 Georgian Avant- Garde 80s, Russia