Gvantsa Agrba – Artist Statement
Text and images courtesy of the artist
From the series: A Field of Sweet Nettles Oil on canvas, 150x150cm, 2024 by Gvantsa Agrba
Artist Statement
Gvantsa Agrba: My artistic practice spans across painting, scenography, costume design, and visual arts, serving as a medium to explore identity, vulnerability, and personal mythology. However, creating art as a queer and feminist artist in Georgia means operating within a deeply restrictive socio-political environment where visibility often comes with systemic barriers and personal risks.
In Georgia, conservative structures and systemic pressure create an atmosphere of constant censorship and marginalization for non-conforming voices. As a woman and a queer artist, my work is frequently forced to exist in the margins, navigating a lack of supportive infrastructure, independent cultural spaces, and institutional protection. The public sphere is heavily policed by dominant orthodox narratives, making self-expression an act of quiet resistance.
Despite these challenges, my creative practice remains a vital space of freedom. Through my art, I reclaim autonomy over my body, identity, and narrative, turning vulnerability into power. Participating in platforms like Feminine Moments allows these silenced struggles to be seen and heard beyond geographic boundaries, creating a sense of solidarity across borders.
From the series: A Field of Sweet Nettles Oil on canvas, 150x150cm, 2024 by Gvantsa Agrba
In the series A Field of Sweet Nettles (2024) and other works, I explore the unstable thresholds between sleep, dreaming, and altered mental states. My practice investigates the liminal zones where physical reality dissolves, and the mind constructs interior landscapes shaped by emotion, memory, and the subconscious.
At the core of my work lies sleep — not as passive rest, but as a dynamic state of consciousness that momentarily displaces waking life. In this space, nature, the body, and silence converge through minimalist motifs such as blades of grass, buzzing sounds, and fragments of text. These elements function as symbolic triggers, guiding the viewer through scenes suffused with ambiguity and internal tension.
My visual language is dominated by emotional logic and symbolic imagery whose meanings remain intentionally elusive. I construct psychological environments that blur the boundaries between reality and illusion, drawing on vivid color palettes, surreal juxtapositions, and moments of subtle sarcasm. Beneath the apparent calmness of my compositions lie deeper currents of fear, violence, sexuality, and pain — themes expressed not only through figuration but also through the presence of objects like bells, electric poles, and other sound-bearing forms. Identity, the unconscious, and hidden energies permeate my work, where even imperceptible elements like dust in the air acquire metaphorical significance. The paintings are not telling resolved narratives, but rather open fields of interpretation — spaces in which viewers are invited to confront their own internal landscapes.
From the series: A Field of Sweet Nettles Oil on canvas, 150x150cm, 2024 by Gvantsa Agrba
About Gvantsa Agrba
Gvantsa Agrba (born in 2001) comes from Sokhumi/Gali, Abkhazia and is currently living in Tbilisi, Georgia. In 2023, she graduated Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, faculty of fine arts. Her solo exhibition “A Field of Sweet Nettles” was presented at Museum of Literature, Tbilisi, Georgia in 2024. She has done artist residencies in Troškūnai, Lithuania and at Tolon Museum of Modern Art in Kuntuu, Kyrgyzstan.
Follow her on Instagram: #gvantsa.agrba