Sculptor and teacher Jumber Jikia, Head of the Faculty of Applied Arts at the Tbilisi Academy of Arts, graduated from the Faculty of Sculpture of the same institution in 1974. Since then he has participated in international sculpture competitions such as Tradition and Search, Fanano Arte, Winter Salon, etc.
He has received several major commissions for urban sculptures in Tbilisi: he sculpted a monument to the victims of the 1924 uprising, set in Zugdidi; a statue of Vaclav Havel erected in the park named after the Czech politician and inaugurated in 2018 by the then Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili and Czech Defense Minister Martin Stropinik; and a monument to Oliver and Marjorie Wardrops.
Together with Valery Jikia, Jumber Jikia was commissioned to do a colossal statue of Ataturk for the city of Artvin, which is the highest monument to the Turkish statesman. Cast in steel and copper, it was erected in 2017. The statue is the most popular site in Artvin, with more than 35000 visitors per year. Jumber Jikia was awarded the Fanano Arte Prize of the 1st degree (St. Fanano, Italy, 1985) and gold medals in Warsaw, Poland (1986), and Paris, France (1994). Since 1990 he is the president of the Creative Center for Sculptors Kirby.
