Andro Wekua

Wekua’s work frequently dwells on his childhood and subsequent exile from Sukhumi, the capital of the breakaway, post-Soviet Republic of Abkhazia, which was largely destroyed during the 1992-1993 civil war, and is located on the coast of the Black Sea. A powerful yet ambiguous metaphor, the body of water referenced by Wekua creates a more generalized atmosphere of depth and distance, longing and loss. This work Diving was created on an aluminum panel, and features intense paint and ink work. The layers of impasto and incisions suggest the coursing, abstract surface of the ocean.