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11/9/2015

Two Exhibition

Art in General, New York

Chubika: The Echoes
Curated by Wato Tsereteli

Art in General is pleased to present The Echoes, a New Commission by Nino Chubinishvili aka Chubika in the Storefront Project Space. The exhibition is presented as part of the International Collaborations program in partnership with the Center for Contemporary Art, Tbilisi, Georgia, and will mark the artist’s first institutional solo exhibition in the United States.

Integrating her diverse background in costuming and successful career as a fashion designer, Chubika’s artistic practice blends sculptural and theatrical elements with wearable utility. She maps the plasticity and expressive potentialities of unconventional materials onto familiar objects, distancing them from associations with passive consumption. The artist’s affective installations, sculptures, animations, and collaborative performances aim to transmit spiritual ideas at a subconscious level, where performative objects reveal hidden messages over time. Her work’s relationship to metaphor is an embodied and self-reflexive one, best absorbed subliminally by those who occupy the garments or installations.

Chubika sees objects that adorn the body as visual signifiers or archetypes of a collective unconscious, tools for navigating the space between ideals and reality. The Echoes takes an emotive approach to animating both the personal and political, reflecting on Georgia’s fight for independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, while also addressing the artist’s personal journey during that period of monumental transition. Using mirrors and other reflective materials, Chubika activates Art in General’s Storefront Project Space to evoke the dual perspectives of a historical event, the conceptual and muscle memories that are continuously formed and reformed.

Nino Chubinishvili aka Chubika lives and works in Tbilisi, Georgia. She received a degree in Stage and Costume Design from the Academy of Fine Arts in Tbilisi and a post-graduate degree in Fashion Design from the Institute Francais de la Mode in Paris. Chubika has recently been included in exhibitions at the Georgian National Museum, Tbilisi (2014); Weltkunstzimmer, Düsseldorf (2014); Artarea, Tbilisi (2013); Cobra Museum, Amsterdam (2009); and Artisterium, Tbilisi (2008). In 2014, Chubika collaborated with choreographer Julie Nioche on a dance performance for the annual Avignon Festival in Avignon, France. She has worked with multiple fashion houses including Kenzo and Pierre Cardin, and designed costumes for theater companies throughout Georgia.

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Lior Shvil: PROTOCOLS
Curated by Kristen Chappa

Art in General is pleased to present PROTOCOLS, a New Commission by Lior Shvil in the 6th floor gallery. This performance is programmed in conjunction with Performa 15.

Shvil’s New Commission PROTOCOLS will include a large-scale installation inspired by military counter-insurgency (COIN) training courses, which will be activated by a series of improvisational theater workshops and live performances based on combat procedures throughout the run of show. Reflecting on the psychological effects of the built environment, Shvil’s installation echoes specialized facilities made to imitate the urban terrain of conflict areas. These sites become alternate realities, or stage sets, for the soldiers in them, playing insurgents and civilians in each “mission.” The biomechanics and squad positioning perfected in training exercises are of key interest to the artist, as they are inherently tied to architectural context, and part of his larger investigation in deconstructing relationships between site, history, narrative, and testimony.

Audience members will be invited to work directly with the artist in collaboration with actor and improvisational artist Hollis Witherspoon via an open call for non-professional actors. Participants will rehearse scripts, exercises, and protocols based on Army training manuals and Shvil’s own military experience. Stereotypes embedded in specific roles and choreographies will be investigated and challenged, with opportunities for new understanding to develop. These workshops and performances, rooted in social theater, will be free and open to members of the public as spectators or actors. Throughout this evolving exhibition, audience members will be offered a rare opportunity to both witness and take part in creating content and meaning.

Lior Shvil was born in Tel Aviv, Israel and lives and works in New York. In 2010, he received his MFA from Columbia University. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture, and has completed a Post Graduate program in Art and Design from the Bezalel Academy, Jerusalem. Shvil has recently been included in exhibitions at the ICA Museum, Philadelphia, PA; The RFC Museum, Miami, FL; The Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY; SculptureCenter, Long Island City, NY; and Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY. Solo exhibitions of Shvil’s work have been held at High Desert Test Sites, Joshua Tree, CA (2015); Givon Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel (2014); CAGE, New York, NY (2014); Andrea Rosen Gallery 2, New York, NY (2011); and Recess, Brooklyn, NY (2010).

Image: Nino Chubinishvili aka Chubika, Beauty of Wildness, 2012. Courtesy the artist.

Press Contact: Lindsey Berfond; lindsey@artingeneral.org

Opening reception: Saturday, September 12, 6–8pm

Art in General
79 Walker Street
New York USA

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