Lado Lomitashvili is a young Georgian contemporary artist and the founder of Studio Gypsandconcrete. He studied architecture at Tbilisi State Academy of Arts (TSSA) and later contextual design at Design Academy Eindhoven (DAE) and now works across a range of media: architecture, space design and site-specific installation. In his abstract works, architecture and product design are substantial elements. Lado has been the recipient of several awards, including being part of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Forbes in 2018, and later picking up both the Tsinandali Award in Visual Art and a Special Prize from the Zygmunt Waliszewski Visual Art Prize.
“I always found it difficult to define myself through a single field… I spent my childhood with a camera in my hands. Then I graduated from the architecture faculty at TSSA and at the same time I was taking part in a lot of exhibitions with site-specific artwork. I also recently studied contextual design at the design academy, so I never look for specific definitions for how I express myself.
It’s a never-ending process, learning who I am. I recently realized that even though I was changing professions from one to another, everything had one primary interest: space and my own perception of it. I suppose there’s courage in saying that I haven’t yet fully found myself—doing so might stop me from striving for innovation.
“Freedom isn’t something to be achieved. It’s a constant process of searching and development—the journey, not the end result.”
To me, freedom isn’t something to be achieved. It’s a constant process of searching and development—the journey, not the end result. The path to freedom does not need a set destination, it is an inner feeling that frees you from stereotypes and creates individuality, your own work.
For the continued existence of inner freedom, I believe self-confidence plays an important role. With self-confidence, I gain the courage to help myself overcome obstacles and meet challenges. It’s a challenge that in itself is associated with something unfamiliar, so to overcome it, you need new information to find the right solution. Considering that, finding this path without self-confidence is unimaginable for me.”
