Parmen Daushvili’s paintings are survivors of their own making - they are over-painted, scraped, sanded, re-painted and transformed. Daushvili began painting in 2003, but it wasn’t until after fleeing Tbilisi for the United Kingdom that he became a full time painter, focusing initially on portrait commissions he received via social media. 

He now finds himself inspired by his immediate surroundings, his friends and family, the light that seeps into his Kensington studio or the passerbyers he views from his window. Daushvili’s compositions are often subjected to a rigorous process of reduction, stripping them down to their essence until only the faintest traces remain. His brushwork is economical and his palette somber and measured. The resulting paintings radiate a sense of displacement, otherness and longing.