Alexander Dzhikia graduated from the Moscow Architectural Institute, but is known as a graphic artist and poet. He is an old friend of the Art-Bla group (A. Savin, V. Cheltsov, M. Labazov), their sign with the little men running over the abyss was drawn by Jikia. Now the graphic division of the architectural studio "AB" has published the "Complete catalog", which includes drawings from 1982-2004. In the mid-80s, there were "chamber" photographs, drawings and paintings. Then - mostly drawings. Since 1988, he has been a member of the KvartArt art group, has been illustrating Kharms and a self-instruction manual for the Greek language. In 1996, he first moved to New York, then to Ankara, where he taught the basics of design, published illustrations in various publications and wrote books. Returning to Russia after ten years living abroad, Alexander Dzhikia presented an extensive retrospection of his graphic works.
Each drawing is an independent story. All of them are equipped with a title-inscription, which sounds like a dialogue between characters, then like a voiceover. All together, perhaps just because of the signatures, most of all resembles drawings of Greek vases that left their stable mythological world and became interested in the mortal world. Everyday scenes, literary plots and historical heroes are snatched out of their usual context, arranged on white sheets of tracing paper and play out funny, tragic and sometimes absurd stories in front of the viewer. … Beethoven listening to music through the bugle, a man in a coat and with a saber, jumping into the sea after a shark, two men with eyes-lamps, one of them burned out, a fight in the street, a showdown between a man and a woman … - the author himself defines his method as "instant registration of a fleeting world." This world is drawn from life, all its manifestations, but ultimately reflects the inner world of the artist himself.
Best of all, Alexander Brodsky said about Djikia's drawings: “… art
telling dreams without interpreting them. Still in all this there is a huge
amount of hidden architecture. It sticks out from everywhere, but it is not very noticeable, so that nobody is embarrassed by its presence."
