About

Sasha Chavchavadze's multimedia work reactivates forgotten history in the public memory as a catalyst for change. As she researches the past, she creates ecosystems of mixed media drawings, paintings, assemblages, and digital work that explore the pathos and power of lost narratives and voices. Her project, Museum of Matches, translated Cold War history into visual forms. In the Battle Pass Series she explored conflict and memory by evoking the often-forgotten Revolutionary Battle of Brooklyn. Her study of forgotten, holistic aspects of early Modernism, such as affordability and broad access to the arts, led to the Useful Objects series.  In Crosswords/Crewel Work, she highlights the words and imagery inspired by forgotten women mentors, with a focus on the American Transcendentalist writer Margaret Fuller in the Footnote Margaret Fuller Series.

Believing fervently that art today has become compartmentalized and disconnected from its essential function, Chavchavadze has created numerous collaborative projects that connect art to other disciplines, and to the community.  She is the Founder of Proteus Gowanus, an award-winning interdisciplinary exhibition and event space that was a cultural hub in Brooklyn for ten years. Other community-centered projects initiated by Chavchavadze include: Battle Pass Collective, D'Amico Gowanus Collective, Carnival of Connectivity, (Brooklyn Arts Council grant), SALLY, and FOOTNOTE Project.

Chavchavadze's work has been exhibited widely for thirty years, including: the Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY;  Luise Ross Gallery and Cooper Union Gallery, NYC; the Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock; the Museum of Literature, Tbilisi, Georgia; Kentler International Drawing Space and the Rotunda Gallery in Brooklyn. She has received numerous awards and residencies, including as a 2018 Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome, and as a finalist in the International Monument to the Cold War competition. Her public art installation Battle Pass: Revolution II, located in Brooklyn, NY from 2011 - 2019, was commissioned by the NYC DOT Urban Art Program. Collaborative projects initiated by Chavchavadze have been presented at TEDxGowanus, at the Museum of Modern Art and on BRIC TV.

Excerpts of Chavchavadze's visual work and writing have been published in Cabinet, Bomb, Marginalia and NYFA Current magazines, and as a book (Museum of Matches, Proteotypes 2011).