THE SECRET LIFE OF FUNGI BY NATALIA ABRAMISHVILI
Everything around us is fungi. They generate soil that gives life. They clean, feed, heel. Yet, the most amazing fact is that this organism combines Life and Death at the same time. "Killing," purifying nature, fungi give new life. As food, they can carry deadly danger, but also regenerate, heal. Together they create a life spiral, always leaving hope for the
Natalia Abramishvili
future.
The World of Fungi is a ceramic collection that brings to life the hidden beauty and mystery of one of nature’s most powerful forces: mushrooms.
The artist behind the work, Natalia Abramishvili, has long been fascinated by fungi: an organism that is everywhere, silently shaping our world. They create soil, heal, regenerate, and at the same time, embody decay. They live in a paradox: both life-giving and life-taking, a reminder of the endless cycle of nature.
Scientists now know that the largest organism on Earth is in fact a fungus: a single honey fungus in Oregon stretching over 2,000 acres. Beneath our feet, vast underground networks of mycelium connect trees and plants in a kind of “wood wide web,” allowing them to share nutrients and information. Some fungi can even break down pollutants, cleaning environments that seemed beyond repair. And while certain species carry deadly danger, others have given us life-saving medicines like penicillin.
Through hand-built porcelain sculptures, Natalia explores this duality. Each piece captures both fragility and strength, the delicate gills of a mushroom, the quiet rhythm of growth, the movement between death and rebirth. By dividing her objects into two parts—a grounded, static base symbolizing death, and a dynamic, flowing upper part symbolizing life and hope—she transforms clay into a narrative of existence.
By dividing my object into two parts, I combined life and death in my mushrooms. The static base – immobility, death, and the dynamic upper part – the symbol of movement, life, hope.
Natalia Abramishvili
The artist's ceramic journey began in 2017 after encountering the infinite possibilities of the medium at the Ceramic Biennale in Carouge, Switzerland. Struck by the diversity and unconventionality of ceramics as art, she decided to try working with clay herself—and could never stop. What began as an experiment quickly became a lifelong calling.
Her favorite method of working is hand-building, a technique that gives her the freedom to fully control the form and explore its possibilities without limits. Before beginning any project, Natalia spends weeks nurturing an idea: studying her subject in detail, filling sketchbooks with drawings, and shaping small models.
She describes ceramics as both endlessly experimental and deeply humbling. No matter how much she plans, she believes the artist is never the sole author of the work: clay itself is always a co-creator, shaping the final result in unpredictable ways. Anything can become inspiration: a shadow on the wall, a fragment of music, the curve of a plant. This openness to process, chance, and collaboration with material defines Abramishvili’s artistic philosophy.
