RUST

From Corrosion to Beauty

RUST is the second show in a three-part series entitled: ELEMENTS OF TBILISI. This collaborative exhibition highlights common materials that characterize our city.

Rusted metals are everywhere in Georgia— from old Soviet-era vehicles to pipes and rebar of unfinished construction sites. Four artists, Tony Hanmer, Nika Khabelashvili, Iru Meladze, and Michelle Gagnon, offer their unique visions for aesthetic possibilities in a material typically only fit for the jarti (junkyard).

This show is about seeing potential, then reclaiming and transforming corrosion into something new and beautiful.

The exhibition runs until October 31.

  • Tony Hanmer

    PHOTOGRAPHER, JOURNALIST

    Tony Hanmer is a Canadian photographer, sculptor, and writer who has lived in Georgia for 24 years. He is a journalist for Georgia Today and runs a guesthouse in Svaneti with his Georgian wife, Lali. The photos in this exhibition are inspired by pareidolia, a condition which allows him to see objects, patterns, and faces in ordinary things. Tony finds this very entertaining! He delights in hunting for these corroded creatures on found pieces of metals or in steel yards. His artistic process is to find the beauty in the rust, isolate it with his camera lens, and help others to see the interesting patterns that emerge. He hopes that viewers will find surprising images of their own in his works.

  • Nika Khabelashvili

    VISUAL ARTIST

    Nika Khabelishvili is a Georgian visual artist from Gori, Georgia. He graduated with a BA and MA from Tbilisi State Academy of Art. His work has been exhibited throughout Georgia, Germany, and Poland. An avid traveller, he is currently on the road painting his way through Turkey, Bulgaria, the Balkans, Iran, and Pakistan. Nika is inspired by the nostalgic quality and interesting textures that reclaimed metal provides when used as a canvas. He finds rusted metal beautiful and organically expands on that beauty with paints.

  • Iru Meladze

    MULTIMEDIA ARTIST

    Iru Meladze is a Georgian multimedia artist based in Tallinn, Estonia who holds an MA from Tbilisi State Academy of Arts. Her work finds beauty in the playful, exploratory process of working with rust and believes it offers underestimated possibilities to abstract artists.

    Inspired by a piece of metal found in her grandfather’s garage, Meladze explores rust’s ability to absorb acrylic paints. Mixing paints with PVA glue allows her to create multi-layered organic effects that are energetic and expressive. Organic abstract lines and bright colours contrast well with the corroded metal canvas.

  • Michelle Gagnon

    CURATOR

    Michelle Gagnon is the Curator for The Exchange Gallery and the creator of the RUST exhibition. Intrigued that iron oxide is one of the oldest painting materials used by our ancestors, she explored the use of rust as an alternate dye for textiles. Objects like nails, wires, and steel wool were sprayed with a solution, resulting in a variety of rusty hues such as red, yellow, brown, and black. The objects were layered in the fabrics, resulting in surprising patterns. Michelle is also a documentary filmmaker, script writer, and film developer who has lived in America, Canada, and now Georgia for the last 7 years.