Parmen Daushvili first picked up a paintbrush while living in his native Tblisi, Georgia, but when the 2008 Russian occupation forced him to flee to the U.K., he decided to devote himself to what was once only a pastime. Next month, the self-taught artist’s quietly intense and introspective work—including a large painting of Daushvili with his teenage son, which was selected for inclusion in the prestigious BP Portrait Award at London’s National Portrait Gallery in 2020—makes its New York debut at Polina Berlin Gallery on the Upper East Side, in what’s sure to be his first solo exhibition of many. —Zoe Ruffner