Passion and nostalgia thrown together make for a highly flammable mix, oftentimes resulting in enchanting creativity. After all, you can take an Armenian out of Armenia, but you can’t take Armenia out of an Armenian. This means that everywhere in the world you’ll find this country’s talented sons and daughters pouring their souls into art. Here are just a few gems we’ve discovered, and we’ll keep adding more.
1. Roza Gazarian, United States
Roza Gazarian is a graphic designer and artist based in Brooklyn, NY. She was born in Baku, Azerbaijan, grew up in Mykolayiv, Ukraine, and moved to the United States in 2004. Gazarian graduated from the School of Visual Arts and now is designing apps while creating art and design objects for A Space Studio, her own project born in collaboration with Anna Aristova. Roza’s inspiration comes from her multicultural background and frequent travels – from the Caucasus Mountains to the Paracas Desert, from the Caspian Sea to the Pacific Ocean.
www.aspacestudio.com
2. Thierry Vendome, France
Thierry Vendome is a renowned French jeweler of Armenian descent, born in 1964 near Paris. He is the son of Jean Ohan Vendome, considered a pioneer of the modern art of jewelry in France. Thierry has had numerous exhibitions inspired by his journeys to faraway lands like Iceland and Cameroun. Over the past decade he had taken several trips to Armenia, where he collected materials for his beautiful ornaments.
www.thierryvendome.com
3. Archi Galentz, Germany
Moscow-born Archi Galentz studied fine art at Berlin University of Arts (UdK Berlin). He lives and works in Berlin, Moscow and Yerevan, and his art is on display in many public museums all over the world. The recurrent theme central to Galentz’s artistic work is the question of Armenian identity, especially in relation to political shifts such as the demise of the Soviet Union.
www.arrieregarde.org
4. Kevork Mourad, United States
Kevork Mourad was born in 1970 in Kamechli, a town in the upper reaches of Syria. Of Armenian origin, he received his MFA from the Yerevan Institute of Fine Arts in Armenia and currently lives and works in New York. With his technique of spontaneous painting, where he shares the stage with musicians — a collaboration in which art and music develop in counterpoint to each other – he has worked with many world-class musicians.
www.kevorkmourad.com
5. Mariana Artinian, Argentina
Mariana Artinian studied visual arts at the National University of the Arts in Argentina, focusing on the relationship between art and Genocide as part of her thesis. Mariana has held exhibitions at the Tekeyan, Adán Buenosayres and Borges cultural centers, while her paintings can also be found in private collections both in and outside Argentina. She has been teaching Armenian art and sculpture at her studio since 1998.
marianaartinian.blogspot.com.ar