in the plus/space
OCTOBER 21 - NOVEMBER 19, 2023

OPENING RECEPTION: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21, 5:30-8PM

alien bloom

Eteri Chkadua & Gocha Chkadua

This installation by the Georgian brother and sister artists' duo Gocha and Eteri Chkadua shows oil paintings by Eteri Chkadua and a garden of fantastical "Alien Blooms" by Gocha Chkadua.

The blooms are constructed out of the crude debris of society: plastic containers, cut, constructed and transformed into a sculptural garden of delicate plants and blossoms. Exhibited on low tables and lit by blacklight at night, the garden will transform into an exquisite, ultra-saturated botanical display. As the days continue to get shorter and darker, this glowing installation will be visible from the sidewalk 24/7, through the Plus/Space gate. 

Thirty-five oval paintings by Eteri Chakdua depict unhoused individuals, their faces averted and covered by their few belongings. The works will be installed on one wall of the Plus/Space, in the shape of a bouquet of flowering branches. 

about the artists:

Eteri Chkadua studied at the Tbilisi Academy of Arts and moved to the US in 1988. Her paintings are very much inspired by nostalgia and memory of her home. Her work presented Georgia at the 52nd Venice Biennale, and has been seen in solo exhibition at the Luna Kulturhus Consthalen, Sodertalje, Sweden, the Museum of Literature, Tbilisi, and in group shows at the Aldrich Museum in Connecticut, the MUMOK in Vienna and at the Istanbul Modern Museum in Istanbul among others. Eteri Chkadua has received grants from Creative Time, NY Foundation for the Arts and Pollock-Krasner Foundation, and has been a visiting professor at New York Academy of Arts and the University of California, Santa Barbara. 

Gocha Chkadua was born in 1964 in Tbilisi in Georgia. He studied at the Tbilisi Academy of Arts, and immigrated in 1996 to New York. His Alien Bloom installations have been shown at the Karvasla National Museum of Arts and Museum of Literature in Tbilisi; OPEN 18 in Venice, Italy as well as at the Longhouse Reserve in East Hampton NY, Southampton Art  Center NY and Fiterman Art Center, NYC among other venues.

GALLERY HOURS:

Thursday - Sunday, 1 - 6pm, or by appointment. Please email hanne@fivemyles.org, or call 718-783-4438.

DIRECTIONS:

Take 2, 3, or 4 trains to Franklin Avenue. Walk two blocks against the traffic on Franklin. Walk ¾ block to 558 St. Johns Place. FiveMyles is within easy walking distance from the Brooklyn Museum.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

FiveMyles is in part supported by the New York State Council for the Arts, Public Funds from the New York City Dept. of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Council Member Crystal Hudson, The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, the Joseph Robert Foundation, and the William Talbott Hillman Foundation.