Vachagan Narazyan Shapito - Circus
June 30 - July 6, 2017
Narazyan was born in Kislovodsk, Russia in 1957 where he grew up under the care of his grandparents. He graduated from the Kharkiv Art and Industrial Institute in 1979, where he received classical and technical training to become a professional artist in the Socialist Realism style. Soviet rule required artists to paint in a traditional style that promoted socialist content and representational idealism. Artists who chose to paint in a dissident style did so illegally with the risk of imprisonment or having their work destroyed if it were exhibited publicly. Nonconformist artists formed their own movement in retaliation of Stalinist ideals, holding secret shows and smuggling their work to patrons across borders. Narazyan was at the heart of the movement with a style that combined the old world techniques he’d been taught with new age elements morphed from his imagination.
Cover image: Entertainment I oil 29.5�x31.5�
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Narazyan, Who now lives and works in Ukraine has been an internationally collected artist since his U.S. debut in 1995 at Zimmerly Art Museum in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where 20 of his paintings were shown in a Nonconformist art exhibition. His work is also part of the public collections of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine and Russia, and the city of Kharkiv Art Museum.
Phaeton oil 15.75�x15.5�
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Guardian Angel oil 26”x20.25”
Home (House) oil 26�x20.25�
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Clowness oil 23.75”x21”
Performance oil 17.5�x19.5�
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Bauta oil 35.5”x28”
Memories of the circus and his boyhood intrigue manifested as fantastical romanticism in his paintings. The circus remains a consistent source of inspiration for Narazyan’s work, however symbols of repression such as cages or barriers around his fanciful figures have slowly disappeared as the artist settles into his freed expression. Masks continue to show up in his paintings, such as in “Bauta�, with mysteriously beautiful faces peering through them at the viewer. Angels and eggs are another common symbol for Narazyan that represent re-birth and hope for the nations that occupied the former Soviet Union.
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Taming oil 26”x26”
Entertainment II oil 31.5�x33.5�
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Shapito - Circus oil 23.5”x58”
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Marionette oil 16”x17.5”
Etude oil 15”x18”
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Vertical Movement oil 9.5”x7.25”
Landscape Filled with Performers oil 40”x30”
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Vachagan Narazyan Shapito - Circus
Three Figures oil 7.75”x10”
Opening Reception Friday June 30, 2017 5 to 7pm __________________________________________
225 Canyon Road Santa Fe, NM 87501 505.983.1434 800.779.7387
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