weseeitems
Program
General
Artists
weseeitems, Tbilisi
weseeitems is an art gallery and concept store run by a curatorial collective based in Tbilisi, Georgia. Founded on March 1, 2024, the space is located in a historical heritage building in the Sololaki district.
The collective does not focus on a single discipline — their work spans visual art, performances, and design-related activities. Driven by a passion for discovering and showcasing unique, meaningful items, their mission is to create a space where everyone can engage with and appreciate artistic expression.
Proposal
The booth is conceived as an emotional and spatial dialogue between four artists whose works reflect on vulnerability, memory, resilience, and the fragile condition of contemporary existence. Rather than presenting isolated artistic statements, the project creates a unified atmosphere – one that invites viewers into an intimate psychological landscape shaped by both personal experience and collective reality.
At its core, the project explores hope as a deeply human act. Not hope as naive optimism, but as the courage to remain sensitive in difficult times. The booth becomes a temporary refuge – a space for reflection, recognition, and emotional connection in an increasingly fragmented world.
Through this collective presentation, the artists propose a universal conversation grounded in local experience: how do we continue to carry memory, tenderness, and imagination through periods of instability? And how can art preserve our capacity to feel, connect, and hope?
Ilia Balavadze
Ilia Balavadze is a Georgian artist born in 1968 who lives and works in Tbilisi. He studied painting at the Tbilisi State Academy of Art from 1987 to 1993. Following his academic training, he dedicated many years to working on monumental wall paintings in Orthodox churches across Georgia, developing a deep connection to tradition, craft, and sacred imagery. Balavadze’s artistic style is highly distinctive, marked by originality and attention to detail. His paintings often depict a wide range of environments-from urban cityscapes to serene natural landscapes-yet a constant theme throughout his work is the central presence of the human figure. Whether portraying everyday life or symbolic narratives, he places humanity at the core of his visual storytelling. His compositions often blend realism with subtle elements of fantasy or symbolism, creating layered, thought-provoking images. The artist’s ability to bridge classical training with contemporary sensibilities gives his work a timeless quality. Ilia Balavadze’s works are held in numerous private collections across Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, and the United States. He continues to actively create in Tbilisi, contributing to the country’s contemporary art scene with his unique vision and decades of experience in both sacred and secular art forms.
Sopho Mamaladze
Sopho Mamaladze is a Georgian artist who works across painting, sculpture, and photography. Her artistic journey began at age eight, sculpting imaginative figures from a fantasy world. This early passion for exploring emotions and storytelling laid the foundation for her creative path. By the age of ten, she joined the studio of Georgian artists Lia Shvelidze and Mamuka Tshekladze, where she learned the value of collaboration and artistic exchange. In 2019, she was accepted into the Tbilisi State Art Academy to study Fine Art. Her work has since evolved through constant experimentation with materials like acrylic, pastel, textiles, and mixed media, using bold colors to express deep emotions. In 2021–2022, Sophio received an Erasmus+ scholarship to study at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts de Paris-Cergy, leading to exhibitions in Milan, Spain, and Tbilisi. She has participated in notable events such as the Luxor International Painting Symposium, Ria Keburia Foundation Residence, and Tbilisi Art Fair. In 2022, she held a solo exhibition at Haus Storck in Berlin, and in 2023 at Atinati Gallery. Graduating with honors in 2024, Sophio continues to grow, focusing on intuitive expression and pushing artistic boundaries with each new project. themselves. Her work shows the power of art to explore emotions and personal growth.
Tinatin Chkhikvishvili
Tinatin Chkhikvishvili (born in 1980) belongs to a group of contemporary artists whose interest lies mainly in the pursuit of naive vision. The forms of expression in her art are at first glance very simple. The signature element of Tinatin Chkhikvishvili’s works represents the backgrounds featured in the foreground and depicted without any living creature; The contact between the viewer and the picture is largely established by focusing on secondary details, that, as a result presents unusual perspective of the objects. The color gamma is slightly faded and blurred. Tinatin Chkhikvishvili’s works are kept in private collections in Georgia and many countries around the world.
Mariam Odishvili
Mariam Odishvili is a Georgian artist born in 1994 who lives and works in Tbilisi. Her practice centers around oil on canvas, through which she explores themes of time, memory, and inner experience. Odishvili’s visual language is characterized by layered textures, subtle color transitions, and poetic compositions that evoke a sense of quiet introspection. She had her first solo exhibition, The Cosmophony, in 2021 at Gamrekeli Gallery in Tbilisi. The show marked a significant milestone in her career, showcasing a personal and philosophical approach to painting. Prior to this, she participated in several notable group exhibitions both locally and internationally. In 2017, Odishvili took part in Personal Structures – Open Borders at Palazzo Mora, organized by the European Cultural Centre during the 57th Venice Art Biennale in Italy. That same year, she was featured in Re-Think the Future at the Tbilisi History Museum, a show highlighting emerging Georgian artists. Odishvili continues to develop her artistic practice in Tbilisi, where she remains deeply connected to the cultural and historical layers of her environment. Her work reflects a meditative engagement with space and form, inviting viewers into a contemplative dialogue with the canvas.
Tutu Kiladze
Tutu Kiladze (b. 1981, Tbilisi, Georgia) is a multidisciplinary artist working across painting and ceramics. Born and raised in Tbilisi, she studied at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, where she developed her practice in oil painting while maintaining a strong interest in experimenting with diverse materials and techniques. Throughout her artistic journey, Tutu has explored coloured pencils, gouache, watercolour, oil paint, soft pastels, and ceramics. This openness to material experimentation has become a defining characteristic of her practice, allowing each medium to shape the emotional language of her work. Her paintings are deeply intuitive, often beginning with colour rather than a predetermined composition. Inspired by everyday life, human relationships, fleeting emotions, and quiet moments, Tutu allows each work to evolve organically, discovering its narrative through the process of painting itself. The sea appears as a recurring motif, symbolizing memory, freedom, and emotional depth. Alongside painting, ceramics has become an increasingly important part of her artistic expression. She is drawn to the unpredictability of clay and the transformative nature of the firing process, embracing the element of surprise that accompanies every finished piece.