Ran from Mar 6, 2007 to Mar 31, 2007
Layton Gallery

A reception for Chkhatarashvili and Calhoun will be held on Friday, March 9, 6 – 9 p.m.

Paul Calhoun and Gia Chkhatarashvili will show for the first time in the United States collaborative work that broke new ground when it was originally shown in the Republic of Georgia, where it was supported in part by the U.S. Embassy.

Milwaukeean Calhoun and Georgian Chkhatarashvili will present work that documents life's difficult circumstances in the Republic of Georgia through viewpoints developed in two widely differing societies. The majority of the work has been part of the first Georgian-American photo exhibition "A Bridge on the Ocean," which was opened in Tbilisi in May 2005 and supported in part by the U.S. Embassy there. The MIAD exhibition is the first of this work in the U.S.

Orphanage 86, Batumi, Republic of Georgia, 2005 by Paul Calhoun

The pair's collaborative work began in September 2004 during Calhoun's retrospective exhibit in Georgia. During his month-long stay, he taught photography to orphans and street children in the capital city of Tbilisi, where he also lectured and met Chkhatarashvili. Chkhatarashvili's work focuses on the struggles of people in the small mountain village of Svaneti; Calhoun's on the children and people of Tbilisi with selections from his retrospective.

Sisters, 2001 by Gia Chkhatarashvili

Chkhatarashvili has exhibited widely throughout Europe and was named in 2005 a Soros International Documentary Fellow. Calhoun, who is an adjunct faculty member at MIAD, has exhibited widely in New York, Chicago, Europe and the Far East, and has received numerous national grants. In Milwaukee, he works with underserved Milwaukee Public School students through the Artists Working in Education (AWE) program.