Biography
Teona Yamanidze was born and grew up in Moscow. In 2005 she moved to Tbilisi, Georgia and obtained her BFA degree in Visual Arts from the State Academy of Fine Arts in Georgia. In 2008 she took an interest to print journalism due to the Russian Georgian war that took place in August of that year and remained an active participant of the association of young journalists for the newspaper where she wrote articles about art. Political and press censorship in Russia during the conflict banned all opinions and material about current political situation so in 2010 Teona left the newspaper and returned to painting. In 2011 she was awarded a Grant from Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, in Canada. The same year she got the Research Scholarship from the Ministry of Culture in Georgia. After obtaining both Yamanidze decided to take an opportunity to study in London University of Arts. While working on her postgraduate diploma project she became deeply invested in using documentary photos from hostilities. Her final degree show was concerned with the unknown facts from the 2008 conflict in Georgia.
The work of Yamanidze addresses the social, political and psychological dimensions of immigrant and forcibly displaced refugees during periods of conflict. Mainly her works are autobiographical and are based on studing her unconscious past through the examination of her childhood memories and her traumas during the Georgian Civil war. Her work examines concepts of martyrdom, the space of exile, and issues with foreign identity.
Teona is currently a Fulbright scholar and is obtaining her MFA in Studio Arts at Syracuse University, College of visual and performing arts.
