Levan Songulashvili (b. 1991) is a Georgian-born, New York-based visual artist. His award-winning works and multimedia installations are kept in galleries, museums, public and private art collections worldwide, including the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum, NY.
Songulashvili began painting in early childhood. After successful graduation of Bachelor's Degree from the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts he won several international merit scholarships and became the first Georgian artist who earned his MFA degree with honors from The New York Academy of Art in painting.
Songulashvili has collaborated with Turner Prize-winning artist – Jeremy Deller, American rock star – Iggy Pop; Japanese fashion designer – Issey Miyake; photographer – Yuriko Takagi; composer – Giya Kancheli; Works has been exhibited alongside pieces by Egon Schiele, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Marina Abramović, Spencer Tunick, Yoko Ono, Odd Nerdrum, among others.
In 2020, Songulashvili has created a mural “Associò” in the 19th century building of the luxury hotel Monohraph located in the city center of Tbilisi, Georgia (in public view).
Songulashvili has published two monographs: The STYX (2018) and ASSOCIO (2020). In 2018, The STYX was presented at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
The idea of mutability and possession of an independent sense of emergent identity is of great concern to Songulashvili, particularly as it relates to the recent re-emergence of Georgia as an independent and autonomous state in 1991 — the year of the artist’s birth. The scope of Songulashvili’s cognitive interest focuses on the interaction of artificial and human intelligence and their conflict, sensory perception of the future universe and existential processes. Songulashvili describes the jellyfish, one of his most well-known and favorite topics, as his “companion of his creative adventures”, and adds, "Of course, it does not turn into the object of my observation because of its underwater habitat. It became a certain symbol, a visual and linguistic figure, which helps me explore the universal, archetypal experiences of the human psyche. To me, this creature can only be of an imaginary nature. It is visible, but I don’t see it. The opposite is true for the painting process: I see it, but it is invisible.”
