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| Karen Sargsyan |
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Born 1973, Yerevan, Armenia, Sargsyan currently lives and works in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Sargsyan's sculptural installations are made of paper and refer to the materials' importance in the history of international communication. His sculptures personally materialize history, characters, events and nature through this simple material. The compositions are full of content and emotions and rendered in an impressive, vivid and dramatic form. Some of the installations depict moments taken from Sargsyan's own experiences, but even these envelop and reflect on a wide range of universal questions, events and goals.
The figures in the sculptures appear as if in costume and acting within a theatrical set. Their interaction on their constructed stage and with the viewer is both melodramatic in imagery and at the same time intimate in terms of the scale and the moulded but still two dimensional quality of the paper. The installations seem to be open stages for Sargsyan to express a timeless, yet human character through all its emotions and guises. Once finished, his mutual performances play out on their own, but hypnotically draw the viewer in to consider who these beings are, where they came from and what their place is now in history.
Sargsyan is on residency at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten/Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture until the end of 2008. He has a number of major exhibitions upcoming in the next two years including shows at Marc Foxx Gallery, LA, USA; Harris Lieberman Gallery, New York, USA and at Galerie Juliette Jongma, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. In 2006 Sargsyan participated in Open studios Rijksakademie,Amsterdam, NL; P.R.Z Rijksakademie, Amsterdam, NL and ‘Rijksakademie at Parts' Parts, Xiamen City, CN. In 2007 Sargsyan was awarded first prize in the Thieme award, Art Amsterdam.
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