Lines in Motion: A Conversation with Gia Bugadze
- bugadzegallery
- May 13
- 3 min read
Ahead of his upcoming London exhibition Lines in Motion, Gia Bugadze speaks about the role of line and movement in his work, his connection to London, and the ideas that continue to shape his artistic practice.
As is widely known, over the past year you have created the graphic series Lines in Motion. What inspired the creation of this series, and what concept lies at its foundation?
Graphic works function as a kind of visual diary. By their very nature, graphic compositions carry a biographical imprint. At the same time, graphic art clearly reveals the artist’s professional abilities, experience, and even temperament. In this sense, my graphic cycle contains an element of subjective symbolism. From an expressive perspective, it embodies the following conceptual principle: the line as a word that tells a story, and the dynamic image created by this line as a melody. Together, these elements form an artistic world.
In terms of subject matter and artistic concerns, you work across a remarkably wide range of media — from painting and graphic works to monumental murals created in Georgia and abroad, book illustration, and even film production design. Within this diversity, there seems to be a driving force that continually pushes you toward new forms of creative activity. What is the core credo of your artistic practice?
The multidimensional and polystylistic nature of my work as an artist is shaped by two fundamental impulses: self-discovery and self-realization. Alongside these comes the desire to expand my own possibilities — to broaden both the range and the scale of my creative capacities. Yet perhaps the central cornerstone of my artistic credo is thinking through vision itself: the expansion and diversification of the possibilities of visual thinking.
As we know, your graphic series Lines in Motion will be exhibited in London this May. Why London specifically? What connects you to the city?
London is a very dear city to me. Above all, it is the city of some of my favorite artists — William Blake, Henry Fuseli, Aubrey Beardsley, among others. Their art has given me a great deal as an artist myself.
Beyond this, my special connection to England has also been shaped by the people I have encountered there over the years. I once had the opportunity to meet Margaret Thatcher, and during our meeting we discussed one of my artworks. I also had the honor of hosting Prince Edward in Tbilisi.
I am very happy to be exhibiting once again in my beloved London. This will be my eleventh exhibition in the city, and I hope London will welcome me warmly once again.
Could you tell us about your future plans?
I cannot imagine myself without painting — I live and breathe through art. Naturally, my future plans are connected to painting, though they are not limited to specific goals alone. In general, my work is nourished by several impulses: the first is fascination, the second is knowledge and discovery, the third is protest, the fourth is the joy that comes from the creative process itself, and the fifth is the pain that exists within our world.
My aim is to express all of this through artistic form — to search for diverse visual languages through which I can convey, as intensely as possible, the social, political, intellectual, ethical, and aesthetic ideas that concern me today. What exact form these aspirations will take, time will reveal. As for me, I simply continue working.
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