NINO KAPANADZE

CAVALCADES

Solo exhibition, 5 June – 19 July 2025

30 galerie de Montpensier
Jardin du Palais-Royal
75001 Paris

Villa Atrata is pleased to present Cavalcades, the fifth iteration of Nino Kapanadze’s ongoing Horserace series, inspired by ceremonial horse races held annually in the Caucasus Mountains. Since 2021, the artist has created one diptych each year, allowing viewers to follow the steady evolution of the project. Cavalcades features two new paintings created specifically for the gallery’s space at the Jardin du Palais Royal, shown alongside a selection of works on paper.

As in the previous diptychs, each canvas is divided by a distinct horizon line, evoking field and sky. Upon this landscape background, the artist inscribes დოღი [Doghi] — meaning “horserace” in Georgian — in the Mkhedruli alphabet. Mkhedruli, which literally translates as “cavalry”, derives from mkhedari, the Georgian word for “horseman” or “knight”. The flowing cursive of the Mkhedruli script echoes the movement of galloping horses, yet what may initially resemble mere calligraphy slowly reveals itself as an exploration of gesture, rhythm, and the tension between presence and absence. Nino Kapanadze plays with the motif of the horse : rather than depicting the animals directly, she captures their essence through dynamic, vertical brushstrokes, contrasting with the horizontality of the background and suggesting their grace and velocity.

Composed around this strong horizontal dynamic, the exhibition engages in a conceptual dialogue with the vertically structured works of her Waterfalls series — produced during her residency at Villa Atrata in Angles-sur-l’Anglin and presented simultaneously in the village chapel. 

Nino Kapanadze (b. in 1990, Tbilisi) is a Georgian artist who lives and works in Paris. She graduated from the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Sciences Po Paris, and the Faculty of Architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Her work has been featured in several exhibitions in France and internationally, including:  Cavalcades, Villa Atrata, Paris, France, 2025; Cascades, Villa Atrata, Angles-sur-l’Anglin, 2025; Studio Conversations, David Zwirner, Paris, France, 2025; Rendezvous, Fondazione Bonollo, Thiene, Italy, 2025; Meet me by the Lake, Clearing, New York, USA, 2024; Horserace (Doghi), LC Queisser, Tbilisi, Georgia, 2023.

Upcoming solo exhibitions: Clearing, New York / Los Angeles, USA, 2025.

Selected collections: Lafayette Anticipations Foundation (France); Noewe Foundation (Lithuania); Sigg Art Foundation (France), Fondazione Bonollo (Italy).

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