Irakli Avalishvili, born in 1950 in Tbilisi, Georgia, is a painter and trained biophysicist with a PhD in Physics and Mathematics from the Georgian Technical University. Although initially grounded in science, he transitioned into visual art, eventually graduating from the Faculty of Arts in 1992. His creative path took a profound turn after a life-threatening injury during a peaceful mission in Abkhazia in 1994, an event that heavily influenced his emotionally charged war-themed works such as Twins.
From 2000 to 2022, Avalishvili hosted 37 solo exhibitions in prominent venues across Tbilisi, with international interest placing several of his 500 oil paintings in collections across Switzerland and England. Over the years, he garnered praise from influential cultural figures and institutions: being named one of Georgia’s top six artists by a French expert, earning accolades from European diplomats, and receiving the Philippe Lampedusa Prize in 2025.