|
|
||||
|
New York's first exhibit of Armenian Women Artists open at a TriBeCa Gallery |
||||
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
http://www.anetabnous.com/press/AR_Oct20.pdf New York’s first exhibit of Armenian women artists opens at a Tribeca gallery by Anoush Ter Taulian New York7 – At the opening reception of the “Armenian Women’s Art Exhibit,” held at the Village Quill in Tribeca on October 4, curators Anet Abnous and Tamar Gasparyan-Chester said they had been inspired to mount the exhibit when they had been asked: “Are there really that many good Armenian women artists?” In response, they decided to create a network which might give women artists a chance to know each other. The reached out to Armenian women artists in other countries, and she also to older women artists. “I always had the fire to find other artists that doors had been closed to,” explained Ms.Abnous. The exhibit – the fruit of all that outreach – showcased some 23 artists, and the opening weekend events included a poetry reading and a talk with the artists. More than 40 people came to the exhibit opening to witness how Armenian history and the multigenerational connections among Armenian women are reflected through art. Close to 100 attended some part of the three-day opening weekend, said the organizers.Barbara Yeterian presented a large, bold oil painting of a Genocide-surviving mother and child left behind in the desert; a glowering dog in the background looks like he wants to eat them. Works from Yeterian’s “Genocide Series” can be seen at www.legacy-project.org. Nora Chavooshian’s sculpture “The Many of Us” involved a mold of one face which was a merging of herself, her mother and grandmother, the many copies of which were organized into a form which looked like a map of Armenia. Emma Gregorian’s painting “Travelers” signified the tribulations of a mother and daughter while they are traveling through, life experiencing darkness and light. The faces and forms of Armenian women were also present. Tamara Khachatarian, a well-known Yerevan painter, combined lighted curves and multi-dimensional layers of female forms in her painting “Mutation.” Nune Aghbalyan, another Yerevan artist, in her piece “Stories” lyrically painted women’s faces on silk. Sonia Balassanian, an Iranian poet and artist who founded the Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art, contributed “Portrait 1,” a face with piercing eyes painted on wood. Armine Sargsyan, who moved from Yerevan to Fresno, painted a portrait, “Garineh,” which oozes Armenian warmth and beauty. Lynne Dian Gulezian, who has traveled throughout West, East, and Southern Africa, displayed a painting of South African women called “Four Women of Pangola.” Among the other artists displayed were graphic artists Suzanne Anoushian (“July in Twin Lakes”) and Hera Marashian (“Yerevan- Construction and Yerevan-Wall”); Nina Katchadourian (“Self Portrait of the Artist as an Artist”); Lara B (“Maternal Hearth”); Taleen Berberian (“Shoe Lineup”); Armine Sargsyan (“Garineh”); Talin Megherian (“Braids: Tied”); Arpie Gennetian Najarian (“Penelope”); and Marsha Odabashian (“Little Red Riding Hood”). Words and pictures On the second day of the opening weekend, Friday, October 5, the exhibit space at the Village Quill was home to a reading of contemporary Armenian poetry, hosted by Lola Koundakjian, creator of the Armenian Poetry Project blogsite (www.Armenian-poetry.blogspot.com). The site’s 15,000 visitors testify to “how much people care about Armenian poetry,” said Ms. Koundakjian. During the reading, the young poet Zepure Arman recited a poem whose central image, the kawing of crows, suggests a flight from abandonment. Her poems appear on a website (www.zepspoetry.com) that Arman shares with her mother, Varteni Mosdichian, painter of translucent, etherealabstracts also on exhibit at the show. Nora Armani, an actress known for her one-woman shows like “On the Couch” and “Snowflakes,” did a collaborative performance with the painter Sari where paintings and poems were done independently and then paired. One of Armani’s poems emphasized risk taking: “Don’t look for nets; look up,” she said. Writer Nancy Agabian read a poem about the Armenian tradition of eating a salty cake and dreaming that the person who brings you water will become your partner in marriage. In her characteristically off-beat take on the myth, she asked: “What if you dream of an animal, or a crowd of people, or another woman?” Yerevan-born Narine Karamyan, who writes in Armenian and Russian, read poems in Armenian with English translations. In “I Never Get Enough of You,” she figuratively paints her feelings as the color of a pomegranate when it surrenders to earth. Many of her poems are dedicated to her son. Sharon Olinka read a painful poem relating the true story of an honor killing in Turkey, where a woman who was raped by a man was slowly stoned to death by her father, brother, and uncle to “save the honor of their family.” It powerfully related the depths of female repression in male-oriented Muslim society. Comments and questions The final component of the opening weekend was an “Art Talk and Discussion” held on Saturday, October 6, was attended by a dozen people and featured a panel of four of the exhibiting artists. Hilda Witherspoon discussed the difficulties she encountered with her male art professors at the Corcoran School of Art, including apparent acts of sabotage. But she let none of these stop her goal to produce a series of 16 charcoal drawings on the Armenian Genocide. Ironically, her subsequent painting on the Armenian earthquake was accepted by a Russian exhibit which had rejected a submission by one of her professors. New York sculptress Taleen Berberian related how she was inspired by the stones and clay of the Armenian sculptural legacy. Her work celebrates female anatomy configured as anthropomorphic, surreal shapes. Her exhibit of fantasy clay shoes depicted what Berberian called the irony of something beautiful being painful at the same time. Marsha Nouritza Odabashhian told how she explores themes of identity by recreating mass media images, like children’s fairy tales, using hybrid animals, people, and plants in an Armenian context. As an illustration, her “Little Red Riding Hood” painting included birdlike Armenian winged shoes and pomegranates in the composition. Finally, Iranian-born Anet Abnous, explained that she works with female nudes because in Iran women don’t have freedom; nobody can see them on the street because they are required to be covered. Building on a fashion design background, her paintings include pieces of pictures she has taken of nude models, to which she adds color and texture to express sexuality, joy, or depression. She said she felt fortunate to have a very supportive husband, who also created the catalogue for the exhibit. While many of the exhibit pieces showed undeniable quality, the exhibit itself raised some questions – principally “What do Armenian women artists have to say that is exclusive to them?” A number of “classic” women’s issues – such as violence, sexual harassment, forced prostitution, and economic disparities – did not receive the attention one would expect in such an environment. Some artistic media, too, seemed under-represented: there were no videos or textile works on display, for example, and only a single photographer. More generally, though the exhibit was conceived to be “inclusive” in the broadest sense, the very fact that submissions went through a selection process meant that voices would necessarily go unheard. The resulting lack of diversity did undercut to some extent the curators’ stated aim of amplifying those ordinarily muted voices. But these critiques should be taken as suggestions for future exhibits. In the meantime, New York’s inaugural “Armenian Women’s Art Exhibit” is open through November 3 at the Village Quill, 106 Franklin Street (2nd floor), between Church Street and West Broadway. For directions log onto www.villagequill. com. Information on the exhibit is available at www.razleen.com. |
||||
|
|
||||
| - For more information about ASA please visit us online at www.asainc.org. | ||||
| - You may send a message to the NY ASA with any questions at newyork_asa@yahoo.com | ||||
|
|
||||
| "Under its constitution, the Armenian Students’ Association of America, Inc. is strictly non-political, non-partisan and non-sectarian. As a service to the Armenian community as a whole, this Web site includes announcements, event schedules, links and other information provided by or referring to other persons or entities of all kinds, many of which do not claim to be non-political, non-partisan or non-sectarian. Inclusion on this Web site does not constitute an endorsement by the Armenian Students’ Association of America, Inc. of the sources or contents of any such announcements, event schedules, links and other information or of the views of any such persons or entities." | ||||