Mariam Lomidze

I am a painter, and I paid my rent for five years by working the front desk at Fabrika, the old Soviet sewing factory in Marjanishvili that is now a hostel, a courtyard of bars and a lot of studios. Tbilisi has a young art scene that changes every season, and my walk follows it through the murals around Fabrika, the galleries in the side streets of Chugureti and the painted entrance halls of old apartment buildings, which we call sadarbazo, some with ceiling frescoes from the 1900s. My second tour is quieter. We spend an hour with Niko Pirosmani at the National Gallery, the self-taught painter who painted signs for taverns and died poor, then walk to the studios of two artists I know. I am not a historian. I just like looking at things carefully with other people, and I will ask you what you see. I now guide live on video from Tbilisi, with my phone as the camera and time for your questions all the way through.