The Caucasian region is an exceptional and remarkable crossroads of peoples, cultures, languages and religions. That diversity, and added to that the extraordinarily expressive landscapes, forms an immense source of cultural expression in many fields. Music, literature and the visual arts stand to profit.
Zura Kalanda was born in 1953 in Georgia (Caucasus). His roots in Georgian culture are fundamental to his work. Subjects in his paintings reflect this in their form, colour and composition.
Those who follow his work, will experience that the rounded Georgian script seamlessly, as it were, transforms into the shapes that are, often in contour, inescapably present as a magnetic kind of orientation.
The paintings in which he employs angular shapes, are in self-evident contrast with the flowing forms in the greater part of his work. The straight, horizontal and vertical lines bring peace in relation to the dynamic tendency of the interwoven play of rounded shapes and lines.
Zura’s connection with Georgian literature is hardly surprising. He is a distinctive poet, art critic and expert in Georgian literature. Furthermore, he was also the publisher of literary works for many years.
Notable, and therefore also characteristic, is his use of colours. One can distinguish two separate directions: a certain predilection for green and blue hues; other works are striking because of their contrasts in colour, in ultimo: black-and-white.
His works are no less remarkable where their content is concerned. The often stylised shapes, which can still be called figurative, find their origin in an invisible, mystical source. That strikes at the heart of what art is: the skill of mystification. Zura attempts to grasp, to fixate the unfathomable. That makes his metaphysical portrayals so fascinating.
His artistry is pure: it lacks what is superfluous, all that remains is the essence, which emerges with great power. His works are remarkably recognisable and very authentic. What he makes evokes emotions, sometimes of introvert tranquillity, then again of vehement tension, albeit in a subtle way.
This artist is clearly nourished by inspiration.