Modern Art’s second exhibition of Karlo Kacharava features previously unseen drawings from his sketchbooks, created between 1991 and 1992, alongside paintings from 1988 to 1993. The show, titled Sometimes Ballerina, Sometimes Priest, in Reality, a Murderer, quotes the artist himself having been scrawled on one of his drawings. This exhibition provides a glimpse into Kacharava’s automatic writing approach to the artistic process, seamlessly intertwining text and visual elements. Recurring phrases written in Georgian, such as “Dreams of Mzhavanadze” – a reference to Vasil Mzhavanadze, the first secretary of Georgia’s communist party from 1953 to 1972 – reflect his wry sense of humour and the chaotic information consumption. Alongside these Georgian phrases, Kacharava references German Neo-expressionist painter Helmut Middendorf, as well as James Ensor, Francesco Clemente, and Norwegian writer and journalist Ivar Enoksen among others.
