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Aleksandr Avagyan

Aleksandr Avagyan was born in 1990 in Yerevan, in the former Soviet Union of Armenia. He lives and works in Paris. Trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Yerevan, Aleksandr Avagyan left for Marseille in 2012. After a short time at the Beaux-Arts, he continued his studies in Plastic Arts at the University of Aix-Marseille. Since 2014, the artist has been interested in the notions of zone, place and synthetic landscape.
Influenced by his experience of the northern districts of Marseille and being deprived of the right to return to his native country for many years, his landscapes become increasingly impersonal and neutral – until they tend towards the abstract. Equally interested in the political maps of the world, and in particular in self-proclaimed countries not recognised by international society, Aleksandr Avagyan tries to embody areas of resistance in his paintings.
Armed with an extremely colourful and vivid palette, his works, which are now abstract, leave the classical perimeter of the format to spread towards more surprising forms, sometimes even three-dimensional. The patches of colour, which the painter calls “zones”, are sometimes adjacent and cohabit, but also collide and enter into conflict. Thanks to the introduction of volume, the painting takes shape and is positioned to support a wall, to hold a cover or to demarcate a border. His supports are multiple: Craft paper, aluminium plates, wooden slats and boards, but also cardboard and canvas. These materials, often raw, with no obvious interest, are for the most part found, salvaged or offered. This is why the encounter is at the heart of Avagyan’s work, since it is necessary for the raw material to catch the eye. Coming from very different places, these materials contribute to the final idea of the incarnation of an area, a synthetic landscape, a place of some kind.

Biography

Exhibitions

  • 2022 / Salon Private Choice, Paris — Les couleurs du monde, Espace Commines, Paris —Unexpected beauty – la galerie Paris 1839, Honk-Kong — Métamorphoses – Poush Manifesto, Clichy
  • 2021 / Atlas Bazar – Poush Manifesto, Clichy
  • 2020 / exposition de groupe, atelier Rotolux, Poush Manifesto
  • 2019 / Acacia Cornigera, Destré espace libre, Marseille
  • 2017 / Zones de disparitions, Espace Fernand Pouillon
  • 2015 / Les images d’Arménie, Mairie de Cassis
  • 2014 / exposition personnelle, Le Ferry Book, Marseille
  • 2012 / exposition personnelle, Galerie Niko, Moscou
  • 2011 / exposition consacrée à la chute du Mur de Berlin, Marriott-Erevan

Urban projects

  • 2017 / conception d’une plaque dédiée au justicier Soghomon, Tehlirian – Marseille
  • 2015 / monument commémoratif du Génocide des Arméniens, Aubagne
  • 2014 / fresque Images synthétiques, Saint Victoret
  • 2011 / création du logo du musée de Nikolay Nikogosian, Moscou
  • 2010 / design d’extérieur de l’école maternelle N° 219, Erevan

Residencies

  • Déc. – mars 2022 / Onzième Lieu, Paris
  • Sep. – oct. 2021  /  Kamu le temps de vivre, Clichy
Artists