NINA GAMSACHURDIA

Nina Gamsakhurdia, born 1965 in Tbilisi, Georgia, daughter of a literature professor and a Germanist, studied at the State Academy of Arts (MA of Art), academic career.
She then worked for many years in art research at the Institute of Art Studies in the field of Byzantine art.
 Together with her husband, the son of the President of Georgia, she had to flee to Switzerland in 1992, heavily pregnant, after his violent overthrow in the midst of the civil war. She has lived and worked in Basel for 28 years and is one of the few icon experts in Switzerland.

Thanks to her knowledge of art history, combined with her craftsmanship and many years of restoration experience, she has been able to realize several large public projects, such as museum exhibitions and restoration projects for churches and private collections. In her Basel studio, she teaches forgotten historical painting techniques such as ancient Egyptian encaustic, fresco, icon painting, etc.

Nina Gamsakhurdia is an unconventional painter. She boldly combines old techniques with a modern world view and personal artistic expression. She makes her own paints from precious stone pigments, uses gold leaf and silver and paints on wooden panels and cloths, which she primes in several layers with alabaster and glue. She researches ancient Egyptian, ancient Indian and Byzantine painting techniques and adapts them for her modern paintings and steles, which are particularly fascinating due to their ritual aesthetics.