David Meskhi – All Saints
All Saints is an exhibition of Georgian artist David Meskhi. Within this newest body of works, Meskhi aims to capture the idealised moment of human gesture and sublime beauty. Religious ecstasy, homoerotic connotations and the gender fluidity of the male body in its transformative years brings us to a combination of heavenly and earthly states of being.
The bodies, not yet ingrained with social definitions of gender, fall into a more natural setting of finer tones of masculine and feminine energies. Universal bodies who in turn reach out to the cosmos to assert their presence. The subject matter becomes the most important - not narrowly gender related, but rather humanistic as the work delivers a strong juxtaposition of defiance verses compliance.
Galerie Kornfeld is pleased to present the exhibition All Saints by Georgian artist David Meskhi. In this newest body of work, Meskhi aims to capture the idealised moment of human gesture and sublime beauty. Religious ecstasy, homoerotic connotations, and the gender fluidity of the male body in its transformative years bring together heavenly and earthly states of being.
The bodies—not yet ingrained with social definitions of gender—exist within a more natural realm of nuanced masculine and feminine energies. They are universal bodies that reach out toward the cosmos to assert their presence. The subject matter is paramount: not narrowly gender-related, but rather humanistic, as the work delivers a strong juxtaposition of defiance versus compliance.
The bodies are cropped at different angles, shown flying freely or kneeling in conformity to the confines of society—whether religious, political, or social. As Meskhi captures young athletes in training, the viewer witnesses the instant between leaping and falling: a brief moment of weightlessness when the body reaches its highest point, pausing momentarily before gravity pulls it back to earth.
Blurred vine leaves before the moon bring us back to actuality, where sports gyms exist and chapel services await—never allowing a complete escape into the ephemeral space of the cosmos. The moon acts as an important reference point to reality, at once distancing the self and placing it into relative perspective. Gym mats replace lunar escape; gym windows and parallel bars resemble crosses. Elements of Georgia’s deeply rooted, socialist-influenced culture meet the traditions of Orthodox Christianity.
Within Meskhi’s works, however, ethereal figures exist beyond normal restrictions of time—open instead to mystical interpretations and states of mind and body that embrace the wonder of existence. Colour and perspective distortions further disrupt the classification of temporality and historical placement, lending the works a mystical and intangible quality.
David Meskhi (born 1979 in Tbilisi) completed his photography degree at the Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film University in Tbilisi in 2005. Early in his career, he worked as a photographer for major Georgian cultural magazines, and his artworks were presented in the collection of the Georgian House of Photography. After his first solo exhibition, he co-directed the award-winning documentary When the Earth Seems to Be Light, based on his photographs.
His works have been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including a solo presentation at Paris Photo (2019), the Museum of Applied Arts in Frankfurt, the Braunsfelder Family Collection in Cologne, the Calvert 22 Foundation in London, the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi, the Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center in Budapest, Kunstverein Freiburg, and the Biennale de la Photographie de Mulhouse. David Meskhi lives and works between Tbilisi and Berlin.
