Tamar Botchorishvili (b. 1980, Kutaisi) is a visual artist based in Tbilisi, Georgia. She studied at the Iakob Nikoladze Art College (1999), graduated from the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts with a degree in Monumental Painting (1999–2005), and later completed a one-year course in Media Art at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig (HGB Leipzig) in Germany (2011–2012).
From 2012 to 2018, she worked as a visiting lecturer at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, and since 2019 she has been represented by Artbeat Gallery.
Botchorishvili actively participates in solo and group exhibitions, as well as local and international art projects and art fairs. Her works are part of museum and private collections in Georgia and abroad.
Her artistic practice is rooted in the intersection of personal memory, the body, the subconscious, and social structures. Working primarily with works on paper, small-scale objects, and installations, her visual language is simultaneously playful and deeply psycho-emotional.
Her work addresses themes such as family, society, death, sexuality, the body, and its perception. While her aesthetic often evokes toy-like forms — vibrant and seemingly light — it is precisely this surface playfulness that enables direct and honest engagement with painful and complex topics.
Botchorishvili’s figurative series are particularly focused on the complexity of the human — and specifically the female — body. Symbolic motifs recur frequently in her work, most notably the breast, which she explores as a code for desire, sexuality, nourishment, power, and sacredness. Through this imagery, she seeks to dismantle social stigmas and invites the viewer to reimagine perspectives on the body, freedom, and dignity.
“In my recent works, the body helps me express the inner weight and strength that a person carries. These series are not narrative — they are entirely built on symbols. The portraits are intentionally not individualized, allowing each viewer to project their own interpretation.”
For Botchorishvili, the body is not merely a biological entity — it is a metaphor for freedom, resistance, and self-expression. Her practice asserts the body as a site of political and cultural tension, creating a platform to challenge societal norms and open dialogue around identity, autonomy, and self-determination.
“Art for me is a way to listen to myself and speak to the world. My practice focuses on the body as both a private space and a public arena where identity, sexuality, trauma, and fear intersect.”
She often employs symbols and metaphors that appear visually light, yet carry difficult, painful, and sometimes taboo themes. This formal lightness becomes a deliberate strategy — creating a soft and intimate space for audiences to engage with difficult topics without immediate confrontation.
“Parts of the body — such as the breast — are for me a complex, multilayered code, linked to power, pleasure, nourishment, calm, and freedom. Re-presenting this symbol is my way of dismantling stigmas and creating a space for viewers to encounter their own associations.”
Her work is dedicated to the search for the threshold where the personal becomes universal — where the intimate becomes political, and the political becomes intimate. For her, art is a space where freedom, autonomy, and self-realization can be fully enacted.
“My practice seeks a balance between the personal and the collective. I invite the viewer to shift their perception — particularly around topics that society often avoids or silences.”
Social Engagement & Projects
After Dark is an independent gallery project initiated and curated by Tamar Botchorishvili. The platform is dedicated to showcasing emerging and underrepresented artists who often lack access to conventional gallery spaces in Tbilisi.
Located in the historic Chughureti neighborhood, the gallery is situated in the street-facing window of the artist’s own studio — a space with high foot traffic and constant engagement with the street. The concept of the “window gallery” emerged organically from the location itself: a natural point of interaction between the artist’s interior world and the public urban environment.
The project began with Botchorishvili’s own works, transforming the window into a surprising visual encounter for passersby and a meaningful aesthetic gesture for the local neighborhood. Over time, the idea evolved into a micro-platform for other emerging artists.
After Dark functions as a nighttime gallery — after dusk, the lit window reveals a new installation or artwork. There are no openings, announcements, or ceremonies: the exhibitions appear quietly, unannounced, and the audience discovers them spontaneously. This mode of passive encounter transforms art into a shared urban moment — immediate, unplanned, and accessible to all.
The space prioritizes casual discovery, continuity, and openness. It shifts exhibitions regularly and intentionally avoids formal mediation, becoming a site for both artistic experimentation and community interaction.
As of today, After Dark stands as the first precedent of its kind in Tbilisi — a gallery space that operates independently from institutional frameworks, accessible to everyday citizens, and especially to those for whom traditional galleries feel distant or inaccessible.
The project fosters artistic decentralization, enhances the visibility of young artists, and proposes new, minimalist ways of bringing contemporary art into the urban public sphere