Baia Gallery Gallery in Tbilisi

Editorial Profile

Founded in 1992 by Baia Tsikoridze with a close circle of artist-friends under the original name Orient, Baia Gallery occupies a specific historical position in Georgia’s post-Soviet cultural landscape. It is recognized as the first private gallery of the post-Soviet period in the country to remain continuously active, emerging during the civil war and the collapse of Soviet-era cultural infrastructure. That context still shapes its identity: Baia Gallery functions not only as a commercial contemporary art gallery in Tbilisi, but also as an archival and interpretative platform for artists connected to the Georgian Trans-avant-garde and to the generation that came of age in the 1980s. Its two spaces give the program a clear internal structure: the Mtatsminda venue on Ingorokva Street is oriented toward twentieth-century Georgian cultural heritage, including Modernism, Avant-garde and Social Realism, while the Vake location is more directly focused on contemporary practice. This dual role places the gallery between historical memory and current production, making it a distinctive presence within the wider network of galleries in Tbilisi.

The gallery’s program moves carefully between research, representation and exhibition-making. Its engagement with figures such as Merab Abramishvili and Irakli Parjiani, for whom Baia Gallery has produced monographic catalogues, reflects a commitment to preserving and recontextualizing key artistic positions from Georgia’s recent history. At the same time, the gallery supports contemporary artists including Guranda Klibadze, Temo Japaridze and Keti Benashvili, with practices ranging from painting and works on paper to installation-based formats. Rather than presenting Georgian art as a closed national narrative, Baia Gallery often frames it through continuities between modernism, late Soviet artistic experimentation and present-day visual language. Its archival database, advisory work for private and institutional collectors, and collaborations with organizations such as Bonhams, Sotheby’s London, the National Gallery and Tbilisi MOMA also connect it to the broader field of institutions in Tbilisi. Through participation in Tbilisi Art Fair and presentations abroad, including Abu Dhabi in 2023, Baia Gallery contributes to positioning contemporary art in Tbilisi within a wider regional and international conversation.