Meir Pichhadze was born in the city of Kutaisi in Georgia, the younger brother of Julieta and Makvalla. He was close to his sister Makvalla, a bond that led him to start painting with her in the local community center, to their father’s great dislike. The center was a refuge from home which Meir Pichhadze always described as cold and alienating.
Makvalla and Meir studied art with Rezo Ramshvily who was a well-known sculptor in Georgia. In Ramshvily’s home Meir found a warm and supportive place. In 1973, at the age of 18, the Pichhadze family (Meir, his parents and Makvalla) immigrated to Israel and settled in Or- Yehuda.
Julieta, his eldest sister, married in Georgia and joined them in Israel years later. Soon after their arrival in Israel the father found work for Meir and his sister: Makvalla worked soldering wire in an electronics plant and continued painting and Meir polished brass letter for gravestones. As he did not study Hebrew in a Hebrew school, this was the way Meir learned the Hebrew alphabet.
After two years, Meir decided to return to painting. He was now making his living polishing diamonds, a job that enabled him to paint. His father, a sought-after floorer in Georgia, continued working in tiling in Israel, but was unable to reproduce his previous success. He tried his luck in the restaurant business but was not successful.
Several years after the family’s arrival in Israel, the 29-year-old Makvalla committed suicide in her parents’ apartment. In the mid -1990s, Pichhadze went to New York and during his stay there he started painting images based on old family photographs from his childhood. Since then, he shifted between Tel- Aviv and New -York. Pichhadze died of cancer in 2010 leaving a daughter and son.
Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions
1983 – Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv
1986 – Kalisher 5 Gallery, Tel Aviv
1986 – Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv
1987 – Meimad Art Gallery, Tel Aviv
1988 – Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv
1990 – Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem
1990 – Julie M. Gallery, Tel Aviv
1993 – Kibbutz Lohamei Ha’Getaot
1993 – Givon Art Gallery, Tel Aviv
1994 – Artists’ Studio, Tel Aviv
1996 – Asperger Gallery, Strasbourg, France
1997 – Artel Gallery, Zichron Ya’akov
1997 – Givon Art Gallery, Tel Aviv
1999 – Derech Eretz, (Beit HaGefen) Gefen house, Haifa
2003 – Meir Pichhadze: Art as Autobiography, Tel Aviv Museum of Art
2004 – Château Golan Winery
2005 – Foreign language (with Assad Azi), Umm el-Fahm Art Gallery
2008 – Meir Pichhadze – Works 1983-2008, the Hayek Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv
2011 – Dan Gallery, Man’s Search for Meaning, the Hayek Center for Contemporary Art
2014 – Meir Pichhadze: Fireflies, Ruppin Academic Center
2017 – Meir Pichhadze, Sundown, Hezi Cohen Gallery
Group Exhibitions
1985 – Friedreich Weizmann Collection, Tel Aviv Museum of Art
1987 – Israeli Art Movements, Ramat Gan Museum of Israeli Art
1987 – Seismic Signs, Sommer Gallery, Tel Aviv
1988 – Israeli Art – the 80’s, Traveling Exhibition, USA
1988 – Fresh Paint, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
1988 – Haifa – Portrait etc., Haifa Museum of Art
1988 – Artists for Rights, Bograshov Gallery, Tel Aviv
1988 – Black and White, Bat Yam Museum
1988 – Dimensions (MEIMAD) in Drawing, Meimad Art Gallery, Tel Aviv
1988 – Art, Israel – Contemporary Work, Philly Art Center, Philadelphia
1989 – Israeli Artist at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot
1989 – Aperto 90 – The Israeli Proposal, the Venice Biennale (Biennale di Venezia)
1989 – Fredericia Gallery, Berlin
1989 – Israeli art, New in the Collection, Tel Aviv Museum of Art
1989 – Touch the 90’s, Beit Uri and Rami Nhostan Museum, Ashdot Ya’akov Meuhad
1989 – Cityscape, Sarah Levi Gallery, Tel Aviv
1990 – The Asian-European Art Biennial, Ankara
1990 – The Column in Contemporary Israeli Sculpture, Schreiber University Art Gallery, Tel Aviv University
1990 – Imaging and Image, Visual Arts Center, Beersheba
1990 – Artifacts, Artifact Gallery, Tel Aviv
1990 – 5 Israeli Artists, Pomeroy Purdy Gallery, London
1991 – Leaves, The Jerusalem Artists House, Jerusalem
1991 – Pershing, Jaffa House of Arts, Jaffa
1991 – The Presence of the Absent: The Empty Chair in Israeli Art, Schreiber University Art Gallery, Tel Aviv University
1991 – The Secret of Color Reduction, (Omanut la’am) Art for the People, Department of Visual Arts
1991 – Israeli Art 1990, Moscow Museum, Israel Museum, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf
1991 – 44-Night, (Frauenmuseum) Women’s Museum, Bonn, Germany
1991 – Perspective, The Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv Museum of Art
1991 – Contemporary Israeli Art – Extended Exhibition, Tel Aviv Museum of Art
1992 – Art Expo, Seville, Spain
1993 – Mikhail Gorbachev – Portrait of a Revolution, Artist House, Tel Aviv
1993 – Ornamentics – Personal Resources, The New Workshop for Art, Rishon LeZion
1994 – Item / Object: a Dialogue between Art and Design, Israeli Culture & Art Institutions Forum
1994 – Saccharin, Oranim Academic College Center Gallery, Oranim College
1995– A Tribute to a Square, Meni H. Gallery, Tel Aviv
1996 – A Decade to the Minister of Education and Culture Award in the field of Visual Arts, Tel Aviv Museum of Art
1996 – ICE Collection, ICE Gallery, NY, New York
1997 – Fantasy, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art
1998 – Kol Hakavod (Voice of Honor), Gefen House Forum, Haifa
1998 – Group Show, Boca Raton, Florida
1998 – Private Icons, Pyramida Center of Contemporary Art, Haifa
2001 – Children, (Beit HaGefen) Gefen House, Haifa
2002 – Inspired by Hanoch Levin, The Hanoch Levin Institute of Israeli Drama, Print portfolio at the Tel Aviv new Cameri Theater
2002 – (Klulot) Wedding, (Beit HaGefen) Gefen House, Haifa
2003 – Mediterranean, (Beit HaGefen) Gefen House, Haifa
2003 – Family of Man, Faculty of Humanities, University of Haifa
2003 – What Beauty, Stern Gallery, Tel Aviv
2004 – The 80’s in Israeli Art, Art Center, Oranim
2004 – Time for Love, (Zman LeOmanut) Time for Art, Tel Aviv
2004 – TLV Profile, Einav Culture Center, Tel Aviv
2004 – COSMOPOL\Immigrant, Avraham Baron Art Gallery, Ben Gurion University of the Negev
2005 – The New Hebrews – 100 Years of Israeli Art, Berlin
2006 – Partners, the Holiday of Holidays, (Beit HaGefen) Gefen House, Haifa
2006 – 4 Seasons, Artist House, Tel Aviv
2006 – Lyrics: Ehud Manor, Mediatheque, Holon
2007 – Books & Letters, Engel Gallery, Tel Aviv
2008 – The White Sport – Racial Myths, Minshar Gallery, Tel Aviv
2008 – The 80’s in Israeli Art, Haifa Museum of Art
Awards
1983 – AICF Sharett Foundation Award; America-Israel Cultural Foundation
1988 – Young Artist Award; Ministry of Education, and Culture
1988 – Minister of Education Award; Ministry of Education, and Culture
1989 – Award for Artists in the field of Visual Arts, Ministry of Education, and Culture
1990 – Gold Medal Award; The Asian-European Art Biennial, Ankara