Elguja Berishvili

Elguja Berishvili | An ascetic lighting a fire | 2026

Your work explores both great sadness and great happiness – how do you balance these emotional extremes in your paintings?

This is an interesting process. I’d like to mention that balancing is directly connected to the strong internal feelings. And although I very much love contrasts (when something is difficult, it can be at the same time great kindness and joy), yet most of my works can be devoted to either heaviness or lightness.

At some point I can experience the alterations of the opposite emotions vibrantly, because they are completing and expressing better when close to each other. So, I pursue the idea of reflecting this balance point.

Elguja Berishvili | The Goliaths’ Guest | 2026

How did your studies in literature and philosophy influence your artistic language and symbolism?

Literature and philosophy do not contradict, but complement each other, and creative work combines both. Then you transfer the emotion of a specific thought or story that has passed through you to paper or canvas. 

It inspires the spiritual growth, therefore you must be constantly naturally focused on self-enrichment, which is essential for creation.

Many of your works feel deeply introspective and almost meditative – what role does inner reflection play in your creative process?

The reflected world is a great teacher for a specific individual who is inclined towards self-observation. The creative process is almost the same for me, in absolute silence and concentration, emotions arise and I reveal something new in the form of paintings, you could say that this is like self-healing, and this inner observer helps you to better see yourself in all this and this moment absolutely brings me to life.

Can you describe how a painting begins for you – from the first idea to the final image?

This is a breath-taking point, as in most of the cases I have no specific plan what I am about to paint or in what form, it just naturally goes with the flow that starts pouring out me. However, nothing is created that I would not have spent time and time again thinking and my subconscious has not processed it. So, I can very suddenly totally change the form of an idea which I had in mind initially into an even more unexpected thought that I felt.

Elguja Berishvili | Before beginning to sound into matter | 2026

Your compositions often include solitary figures – what do these figures represent in your work?

The figures are “forms of various states” that a person feels and goes through throughout his life, while the solitary figures are about self-observation, “that precious solitude” that a person needs so much to pay attention to his own existence and find out who he is in his own solitary silence.

Elguja Berishvili | Florist | 2026

There is a strong sense of texture and materiality in your paintings – how important is the physical surface in expressing your ideas?

I think that this is very important that the visual (painting) is accompanied by words, so that to bring the viewer closer to the emotion and make it more tangible. Words also have their own powerful magic, especially when they come together well with a painting.

Elguja Berishvili | The ancestors are watching us | 2026

What do you hope viewers feel or understand when they encounter your work?

I think that these will be the viewers’ individual feelings, but I want my work to evoke in them that warm feeling of the light of the soul that is remembered and deeply stored in each of them.