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Arshak Sarkissian is widely regarded as the visual poet of Yerevan’s youth culture. His sprawling, densely populated canvases depict the sacred and the profane of a society in giddy flux, hungry for self-discovery and meaningful transformation. Sarkissian distills the fierce energies of an eclectic metropolis into tightly-woven pastiches, in which the street life of the downtrodden and behind-the-curtain abandon of bacchanalian beauties at turns collide and converge.
With their highly stylized, expressionistic compositions, Sarkissian’s paintings convey a ferocious penchant for experiencing the unexplored and hence achieving inner enrichment, expressed through vibrant color schemes, bodies in motion and faces in states of terse eagerness, and a general spirit of forward thrust.
Sarkissian’s sculptures, too, convey experiences that are beyond the pale yet seemingly par for the course in the world view of the now-cosmopolitan denizens who inspire him. Incorporating free-associative elements from history, music, mythology, the Jurassic period, and the call of the hedonistic street, Sarkissian’s sculptures communicate diverse acts of self-actualization, thriving on exuberant botches of colour and architectonics of a decidedly Gothic inflection.
Born in Gyumri, Armenia, Sarkissian achieved fame at a young age. The recipient of his country’s Presidential Gold Medal for Fine Arts, he was commissioned to redesign a section of the Zvartnots International Airport terminal. Since 1999 his works have been exhibited throughout the world. Most recently he completed a residency at New York’s Art Omi International.
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