Alexander Rollanovich Dzhikiya
Born in 1963 in Tbilisi.
1985 – Graduated from the Moscow Architectural Institute.
Since 1989 – member of the youth section of the Moscow Union of Artists (MOSKH).
1988 – one of the organizers of D. Vrubel's "Kvart-Art" gallery (Vrubel Galleries).
Works in collections
Kaliningrad Art Gallery, Kaliningrad
Groninger Museum, Groningen, Netherlands
Walt Disney TV, USA
P. Novitsky, Warsaw, Poland
W. Wittrock, Dusseldorf, Germany
SHIV KEMKA
P. Khoroshilov
E. Platzgummer, Vienna, Austria
B. Winkler
Exhibitions and auctions
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1990 – Galerie Kicken-Pauseback, Cologne, Germany
"ART MYTH 1", "Union" Gallery. Central House of Artists, Moscow
1991 – Manezh Gallery, Moscow
Galerie Koch, Kiel, Germany
1992 – "Group Portrait in the Interior", Regina Gallery, Moscow
Rhenish Landesmuseum, Bonn, Germany
Städtische Galerie Saarbrücken, Saarbrücken, Germany
1993 – Galerie Koch, Kiel, Germany
Galerie Ute Parduhn, Dusseldorf, Germany
"The Beginning of Light", M. Guelman Gallery, Moscow
1995 – Maya Polsky Gallery, Chicago, USA
Galerie Art 5 III Inge Herbert, Berlin, Germany
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1988 – 18th Youth Exhibition, Manezh, Moscow
"Eidos", Youth Palace, Moscow
"Myths and Reality", Youth Palace, Moscow
Exhibition of Moscow graphic artists. Central House of Artists, Moscow
1988-89 – Exhibitions at the Vrubel Gallery
1989 – "Out of Genre", Youth Palace, Moscow
"Interart-89", Poznan, Poland
"Nuova Realta", Pinacoteca Communale Loggetta Lombardesca, Ravenna, Italy
19th Youth Exhibition, Manezh, Moscow
"A. Dzhikiya. D. Vrubel. N. Kertseli", Editorial office of "Decorative Art of the USSR" Magazine, Moscow
1990 – "Perestroika", Buenos Aires, Argentina
"ZHEN", "Kashirka", Moscow
"Traditions of Russian Painting", Museum of the History and Reconstruction of Moscow, Moscow
"Art Hamburg-90", "Union" Gallery, Hamburg, Germany
1991 – "Im Kabinett", Galerie Wittrock, Dusseldorf, Germany
"Artistic Confrontations-91", Torun, Poland
"N. Kertseli. A. Dzhikiya. D. Vrubel", "Kashirka", Moscow
"Art Frankfurt-91", "Union" Gallery, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
"Accrochage", Galerie Koch, Kiel, Germany
"Art Cologne-91", Galerie Wittrock, Cologne, Germany
1992 – "Ex USSR", Groninger Museum, Groningen, Netherlands
"DIN A4", Galerie Koch, Kiel, Germany
"Figurative Drawing", Kunstverein Heilbronn, Heilbronn, Germany
"a Mosca... a Mosca...", Villa Campoleto, Ercolano; Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy
"Trouvailles", Galerie Raymond Bollag, Zurich, Switzerland
"Art from the First Hand, or an Apology for Shyness", Regina Gallery, Moscow
"Current Drawing and Photography from Moscow", Galerie Albrecht, Munich, Germany
"Art Cologne-92", Galerie Wittrock, Cologne, Germany
1993 – "Art Hamburg-93", Pauseback Edition and Guelman Gallery, Hamburg, Germany
"Provisional Address for Contemporary Russian Art", Musee de la Poste, Paris, France
"ART MYTH 3", "Union" Gallery, Manezh, Moscow
1994 – "No! – and Conformists", Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
3rd Biennale of Graphics, Art Gallery, Kaliningrad (First Prize in Unique Graphics)
"Face in its Space", "Fine Art" Gallery, Moscow
"New Year's Project", Regina Gallery, Moscow
25th "Kvart-Art" Exhibition, Vrubel Gallery, Moscow
1995 – "Kvartart for Export", Lomo Depot, Vienna, Austria
"Kunst im Verborgenen. Nonconformists Russia 1957-1995", Collection of Contemporary Art of the Tsaritsyno Museum Reserve. Wilhelm-Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen am Rhein; Documenta-Halle, Kassel; State Lindenau Museum, Altenburg, Germany
"5 Years of Marat Gelman Gallery", House of Artists on Kuznetsky Most, Moscow
Critic
Alexander Dzhikiya is a remarkably sincere artist. This is not meant as a compliment, as modern artists don’t necessarily need to be sincere, and sincerity itself isn’t that interesting. Contemporary artists tend to produce not so much paintings, but texts. Dzhikiya is more like a writer, or, rather, a poet, for whom endless reflection, the ability to live through oneself—one’s dreams, fears, and everyday life—is the essence of creativity. In other words, Dzhikiya is a pure lyricist who has absorbed the tradition of Daniil Kharms as his own. He managed to find the turn where a picture becomes a story, sometimes even an absurdist novel with a plot, a hero, catharsis, and denouement. He interprets the life of his own remarkable family with an absurd humor that can't be called black or white—only ‘Dzhikiya-esque’. Many, seeing captioned pictures, start laughing in advance, thinking they are only caricatures. But in Dzhikiya’s aesthetic, simultaneously elegant and expressive works, there are no social problems or desire to entertain the audience. His graphics are reminiscent of ancient theater, where a recognizable hero is always pursued by fate, where results do not depend on intentions, where actions are predetermined from birth. Dzhikiya’s humor is, rather, an understanding of this ‘damned predestination,’ and that you shouldn’t pay attention to it anyway. This is that southern, harmonious, ‘Hellenic’ wisdom for which we used to love Georgian cinema so much. It turns out that Dzhikiya, who was born in Tbilisi but has lived in Moscow since childhood, is nonetheless a national artist—a ‘person of Caucasian nationality’. And yet, most of his solo exhibitions have taken place in Germany, where he will again be presented at the Hamburg Art Fair by a German gallery. What Germans decipher from Dzhikiya’s pictures is unclear: they know little about our life, for which absurdity is as organic as the change from day to night. Like an Oriental akyn, Dzhikiya conveys what he sees, without any embellishments about ‘image’ or clever ‘new sincerity’. Such a position is considered unfashionable, but it may turn out to have prospects. Is Dzhikiya ironic? Of course, but his is not killer irony, it is a life stance, familiar from Hemingway – ‘irony and pity will save the world’.
E. Kurlandtseva, "Absurd Will Save the World, the Artist Believes" (abridged), Kommersant-DAILY, November 26, 1993.
Works 8
