Biography
About Giorgi Sisauri
Giorgi Sisauri, born in Tbilisi on 10 February 1996, is an artist of many disciplines — calligrapher, graphic artist, miniaturist, poet and writer.
He began to draw at the age of seven, making biblical scenes, portraits, and figurative and abstract compositions. In 2009, at thirteen, he held his first solo exhibition in Tbilisi. His early work soon drew the attention of specialists and critics, laying the foundation for the distinctive artistic language he would develop through calligraphy, miniature painting and the graphic arts.
From 2010, Georgian calligraphy took a central place in his work. His aim was to rediscover the tradition of this ancient art, to develop it, and to transform it into a contemporary artistic language. That same year he won the “Georgian Calligraphy” competition, taking both first place and the Grand Prix. Between 2014 and 2018 he studied at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, in restoration and conservation and in art history and theory.
His practice gradually extended beyond Georgia, and he has taken part in numerous international exhibitions and cultural projects. His work has been shown at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, within the framework of the Frankfurt Book Fair, and in art spaces internationally.
Sisauri’s artistic research brings together Georgian calligraphy, the manuscript tradition, miniature painting, spiritual subject matter and contemporary visual art, so that the Georgian alphabet is transformed from a system of writing into an autonomous artistic language. One of the most significant strands of his work is the study of the relationship between the Georgian alphabet and visual form. Its central project is “Anbantkeba” — a collection of thirty-eight works devoted to the thirty-eight letters of the Georgian Mkhedruli alphabet. In Sisauri’s interpretation each letter becomes an independent image, a symbol and a compositional structure, in which Georgian cultural memory finds contemporary artistic expression.
His work has been presented in a number of significant international exhibitions, among them “Touch of Paradise” at the San Stefano Gallery in Sofia in 2020. In 2023 the same project was shown in Rome, in the historic Palazzo Firenze, bringing together thirty-eight Georgian Mtavruli letters and nineteen spiritual themes. In the same year his collection “The Tailor” was exhibited in Yerevan at the National Centre of Aesthetics, and in December Milan hosted “Alfabeto georgiano, calligrafia e iscrizioni storiche” (Georgian Alphabet, Calligraphy and Historical Inscriptions), curated by the artist himself. On 20–21 April 2025 he presented “Il Tocco del Paradiso. Alfabeto georgiano, icone e arte religiosa moderna” at the Società Dante Alighieri in Rome.
Alongside his visual art, Sisauri is the author of poetry and prose. His literary work takes up the same philosophical, spiritual and historical questions that run through his images: word, image and symbol form a single artistic system in his practice.
His manuscripts and works are held in significant private and institutional collections, including collections associated with Queen Elizabeth II and Pope Francis.
His international work has continued in the United States. In 2025 his works were shown in California at the San José Public Library, in an exhibition organised by the Georgian Heritage Foundation, “Asomtavruli: Beyond the Frames of Time” — carrying his study of the Georgian script beyond the bounds of historical heritage and into the space of contemporary art.
Today Giorgi Sisauri’s artworks and calligraphy are held in museums, galleries and private collections. His practice unites research into Georgian cultural heritage, historical tradition and contemporary artistic thought, giving the Georgian alphabet and Georgian calligraphy a new artistic dimension within an international cultural context.