On September 23 at 3:00 PM, the Art Palace of Georgia  invites you to the presentation of the catalog of Olesia (Lesa) Tavadze—artist, painter, illustrator, and author of numerous books and handmade costume designs.

Olesia (Lesa) Tavadze was born on January 17, 1944, in Tbilisi. She graduated from the Iakob Nikoladze Art School and, beginning in 1963, studied at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts (with an interim two-year period at the Moscow Polygraphic Institute), specializing in painting, book graphics, and theatrical design. After completing her studies, she created circus costume sketches for the Georgian Circus Ensemble.

From 1973 to 1975, she served as a painter at the Tbilisi Russian Theatre for Young Audiences; from 1978 to 1979, as main artist at the Tbilisi Theatre of Miniatures; and from 1996 to 2006, as main artist of the magazine Literaturnaya Gruziya. She also worked as an artist at the Theatre and Cinema Museum and as a guest lecturer in the History of Costumes at Tbilisi State University. 

she works in easel painting and graphics and has designed and illustrated many books, including illustrations for Shakespeare’s plays King John and Love’s Labour’s Lost (Volume I of Shakespeare’s Works).

Her works have been exhibited internationally and are held in museums and private collections. She is a laureate of a UNICEF art competition. She is also the author of numerous art-historical articles and reviews, as well as the children’s book Bursunsula and Paskualina, which received an award in 2007 at the international “Step by Step” competition (New York–Amsterdam) and was published in many languages worldwide.

Her first book published in Georgian, a collection of prose miniatures titled Sad Notes, appeared in 2011. That same year, at the Second Georgian Patriarchate Children’s Book Festival, she won in two categories: Best Children’s Illustrations (Paskualina and Bursunsula) and Best Children’s Book (The Little Vagabond).

The publication was prepared with the support of the Tbilisi City Hall.