Bio Irakli Tchrelashvilii (Ika Trey) was born in 1997 in the Republic of Georgia. Even though his family had a close relationship with artmaking, the consideration of art as a career for him wasn’t even an option in a post-Soviet, crippled country. Immigration to the United States became a pivotal point in his life where Ika decided to devote his life to art. He finished his BFA program at Rutgers University specializing in sculpture and photography. Through his time at Rutgers he has created and taken part in multiple gallery performances as well as engaged in teaching activities such as being a TA for sculpture 1-B class at Rutgers University. He has recieved a gallery award from Mason Gross School of the Arts in the show “Above and Beyond” (2019) and participated in a group exhibition “LOVE 2020” at Columbia University alongside Jon Kessler, Edward Mapplethorpe, and others. In March of 2022, Ika moved back home to the Republic of Georgia where he continues his artistic practice.. |
Artist Statement
I create miniatures and lifesize sculptures from my memories and recreate childhood spaces, architecture and objects, and shift them through different mediums like sculpture, photography and drawing. I often incorporate soil in my work which has become a significant element for me, both from my culture which considers it sacred, and also through its quality of connecting places together. My work tends to be more analytical than expressive, however, while thinking more about my childhood and that way of perception, it has acquired elements of formal naivete which is expressed through loose and childish aesthetics. Through my work, I relive my memories and expand them in terms of intimacy, a sense of safety and the idea of home. The memories, conditions, and spaces I work with express the cultural and social realities of my home country Georgia, especially as viewed through my childhood memories. As I was growing up, I was encountering different spaces in the neighborhood that didn’t quite make sense to me. They were unfinished architectural projects, abandoned sites, or just an odd division of land between people after systemless privatization in the post-soviet time which created vacant, liminal spaces that I and other children playfully occupied. Looking back at those environments, I see how my interest in human mind and space interaction has begun. The experience with the facadelessness of my surroundings made me aware of the underlying structures and made me question the nature of our spatial interactions.. There were no secrets in space nor in objects that surrounded me; everything was visible from the paint of the facade till the earth that they stood on.
I create miniatures and lifesize sculptures from my memories and recreate childhood spaces, architecture and objects, and shift them through different mediums like sculpture, photography and drawing. I often incorporate soil in my work which has become a significant element for me, both from my culture which considers it sacred, and also through its quality of connecting places together. My work tends to be more analytical than expressive, however, while thinking more about my childhood and that way of perception, it has acquired elements of formal naivete which is expressed through loose and childish aesthetics. Through my work, I relive my memories and expand them in terms of intimacy, a sense of safety and the idea of home. The memories, conditions, and spaces I work with express the cultural and social realities of my home country Georgia, especially as viewed through my childhood memories. As I was growing up, I was encountering different spaces in the neighborhood that didn’t quite make sense to me. They were unfinished architectural projects, abandoned sites, or just an odd division of land between people after systemless privatization in the post-soviet time which created vacant, liminal spaces that I and other children playfully occupied. Looking back at those environments, I see how my interest in human mind and space interaction has begun. The experience with the facadelessness of my surroundings made me aware of the underlying structures and made me question the nature of our spatial interactions.. There were no secrets in space nor in objects that surrounded me; everything was visible from the paint of the facade till the earth that they stood on.
Artist CV
Ika Trey (Irakli Tchrelashvili) | [email protected]
EDUCATION
Rutgers University - BFA Visual Arts 07/2015 - 05/2020
Cresskill High School - 2015
AWARDS
EXHIBITIONS
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
EDUCATION
Rutgers University - BFA Visual Arts 07/2015 - 05/2020
Cresskill High School - 2015
AWARDS
- James O. Dumont Travel Award for artistic integrity in art & design (2020)
- Gallery award in the show “Above and Beyond” at Rutgers University (2018)
- Stipend at the citywide project of Windows of Understanding in New Brunswick, NJ (2017-2018)
EXHIBITIONS
- "Country Remains" group show at "Cube in Context", Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia (2023)
- "Kolga 2023" Exhibition, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia (2023)
- Tbilisi Art Fair, "Dissolution" Gallery, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia (2022)
- "House Plants" Arthouse Gori, Gori, Republic of Georgia (2022)
- Online thesis exhibition “Indoor Songs”, (2020)
- “LOVE 2020” at Columbia University, NY (2020)
- Performance at MFA Thesis Show “No One’s Island” at Rutgers University (2020)
- Performance at MFA Thesis show “No Refunds” at Rutgers University (2019)
- Leader of the curatorial team for “Visions for the Future” at Rutgers University (2019)
- Media Installation and performance at Mason Gross Co-curate shows at Rutgers University (2019)
- Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition "Happy Trails" at Rutgers University Inn and Conference Center (2018)
- Installation at the Co-Curate shows at Rutgers University. (2018)
- Exhibition “Above and Beyond” at Rutgers University(2018)
- Exhibition "Between Either and Or" at Rutgers University. NJ (2017)
- Live Show "Brooklyn's Best". NY (2016)
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
- Art Teacher at "Master Art Studio" (2020-2021)
- Teaching Assistant at Rutgers University (2019-2020)
- Workshop program about photography at Amandla Crossing Transitional Housing, Edison, NJ (2018)
- Public lecture about visual art for middle/high school students. Zemo Alvani, Georgia (2016)