ABOUT
Bio
Lizi Budagashvili (B.2000) is an artist born and raised in Tbilisi, Georgia. She is currently based in NYC pursuing her MFA at New York Academy of Art. She received her BFA from Ringling College of Art and Design. Her work reflects the life experiences of having to spend years away from her motherland.
Her figurative paintings and prints are based on childhood experiences and explore dissociation from home while reproducing a nostalgic feeling evoked by distant memories.
My work delves into themes of childhood, memories, and nostalgia, capturing the longing for the most carefree, innocent, and irreproducible period of our lives. The ephemeral nature of childhood shapes my painting and printmaking techniques, enabling me to create ethereal and dreamlike atmospheres that reflect memories after multiple layers of removal.
By abstracting childhood recollections, I seek to recreate the past, the magic of cherished moments, the whimsy of very first adventures, and evoke feelings of safety and joy, inviting viewers to traverse dreamscapes, blurring the line between distant memories and reality.
Having left home at a young age, I've found myself longing for that sense of belonging ever since. This exploration takes shape through double exposure imagery, blending home and abroad, past and present, dream and everyday life. The double-sided nature of nostalgia with its comforting embrace and tingling mystery also fuels my interest in the subject.
I wonder whether this profound longing is rooted in a tangible place or an imagined homeland built of memory stains and glimpses. And how can one feel homesick for a phantom home - a place they have never been to?
