The Why Not Gallery Gallery in Tbilisi

Editorial Profile

The Why Not Gallery holds a precise position within contemporary art in Tbilisi, shaped by its shift from experimental display format to emerging commercial gallery. Founded in 2018 by artist Gvantsa Jishkariani and curator Ellen Kapanadze, it began as a not-for-profit vitrine project in an underground passageway before moving into a permanent space in 2020. That origin still matters: the gallery’s program retains the scale, immediacy, and artist-led sensibility of an independent initiative, even as it now operates as a commercial contemporary art gallery in Tbilisi. From its base in Chugureti, The Why Not Gallery focuses on young Georgian artists, often supporting practices at an early stage and giving space to first solo presentations or projects that might not easily fit within more established institutional frameworks. In this sense, it contributes to a local ecosystem where independent initiatives, studio-based experimentation, and emerging galleries in Tbilisi play a central role in defining the city’s contemporary energy.

Its exhibition history points to a program that is materially varied and attentive to forms of personal, social, and political narration. Painting, installation, performance, video, textile-based work, and immersive environments appear across projects that move between emerging voices and overlooked Georgian positions. Exhibitions such as Shalva Nikvashvili’s Ai Ia (this is a Viola), it is a Flower, Ana Chaduneli’s immersive What if you were in my garden, and Malkhaz Gorgadze’s Lost Paradise suggest a gallery interested in vulnerability, memory, identity, and the unstable conditions of contemporary life rather than a purely market-facing presentation model. The artist list, including Gvantsa Jishkariani, Nata Varazi, Tornike Bendeliani, Tamaz Nutsubidze, Malkhaz Gorgadze, and others, reinforces its role as a platform for Georgian contemporary practice rather than a broadly international roster. Participation in Tbilisi Art Fair, Tbilisi Independent x Frieze Galleries at No.9 Cork Street, and NADA membership since 2023 extends the gallery’s visibility beyond Georgia, while its program remains closely grounded in the specific conditions of artistic production in Tbilisi.