“As a young artist I remember struggling to find my own vision, to develop my own signature in art. It was not quick and easy. I copied the old masters every night until three o’clock in the morning. It was an incredible relationship - as if they lived with me in spirit and we were working together. I was changing my style frequently, looking for my own vision to emerge, and eventually I found myself in figurative art where I could express my personality most fully.”

Vaho Muskheli grew up in Tbilisi, capital of the Republic of Georgia. Muskheli first studied art at Special Art College of Jacob Nicoladze, a renowned sculptor and student of Roden, and then continued at Georgian State Academy of Fine Arts. After graduation, Vaho Muskheli devoted several years teaching painting to children at the Tbilisi Children’s Art School, and later returned to alma mater as an Art Professor at the Georgian State Academy of Fine Arts. In 1990 Vaho Muskheli was invited to represent Eastern European artists at the Goodwill Games. Since then, Vaho exhibited at the galleries in Seattle and Bellevue, WA.

Vaho Muskheli combines classical styles in unexpected ways, resulting in a simultaneous sense of recognition and surprise. Muskheli was trained in the tradition of socialist realism, and studied old masters in order to develop his own vision and style. The emotional intensity and mastery of the Muskheli’s works are comparable to ones by Michelangelo, Bosch, Bruegel and the great surrealists. Vaho Muskheli acknowledges: “Michelangelo taught me how to draw, Rembrandt showed me color, and Bruegel taught me how to think. And I found myself in the imaginary realism that fuses the expressiveness of figurative art and a sense of Georgia, her mountains, her waters and her history—all fantastically transformed”.

Vaho Muskheli paints exclusively in oil on canvases of small to monumental format. Over the years Muskheli developed methods and mediums that enable him to express his ideas with swiftness and accuracy while allowing complete freedom of imagination during the painting process. Images appear and disappear, color is laid down layer upon transparent layer. The paintings have jewel-like richness in color and composition.

Vaho’s paintings are held in public and private collections worldwide.