The second edition of the Armenia Art Fair took place May 31—June 3. Bringing together an international group of 35 exhibitors, it took place in Yerevan at the Yerevan Expo. The budding contemporary fair coincided with the city’s first annual Art Week which featured a diverse cultural program of events, exhibition openings, and talks.
“It’s very important for a country like Armenia, which has a lot to offer, to be part of this worldwide conversation about art and culture that takes place at art fairs,” said Co-Founder of the Armenia Art Fair Nina Festekjian and Co-Fonding Director Zara Ouzounian-Halpin. “Our vision, in addition to making Armenia a cultural hub and a place where regional artists can be discovered, is to attract visitors to Armenia.”
Whitewall was in Yerevan for the fair, where a number of gallery booths stood out.
4Plus
4Plus Documentary Photography Center, is an organization aimed at empowering Armenian women through documentary photography. Run by a group of female photographers, 4Plus presented works by Nazik Armenakyan, Anahit Hayrapetyan, Piruza Khalapyan, and Nelli Shishmanyan.
Canopy Gallery
Israel’s Canopy Gallery, based in Netanya, presented emerging talents Anuradha Delacour and Efrath Bouana. India-born Delacour, now based in Paris, creates paintings and drawings inspired by Indian miniature painting, traditional Chinese painting, preshistoric animals, and mythologies. Israeli artist Bouana, living between France and Israel, paints emotionally in large-scale, incorporating materials like cotton, wax, oil, and acrylic using her hands, brushes, and rags.
Karoyan Gallery
The Armenian gallery was opened by Nazareth Karoyan in 2016. Against an orange-red wall, the gallery presented the work of Avraham Eilat and Nechama Levendel. The Tel Aviv-born Eilat works across a variety of media, including drawing, installation, photography, sculpture, film, and etchings. Levendel, who creates textured works using paper, books, and natural materials, has lived in the Ein Hod artists village since 1984.
PRIDE ART ADVISORY
Daria Prydybailo-Pashchenko is the founder and curator of PRIDE ART ADVISORY, focused on the Ukranian art scene. At the fair, they presented “WITH A FLOW. Liquid Contemporaneity,” a group show including work by young Ukranian talents Roman Mikhailov (Kharkiv), Sergey Melnitchenko (Mykolaiv), Svitlana Levchenko (Kyiv), Kateryna Motyleva (Lugansk), and Alina Fedotova and Artue Samofalov (Sevastopol).
Weber-Lutgen Gallery
The Sevillian gallery, directed by Ed. M.A. Weber, showcases the works of Adalusian artists creating conceptual, video, experimental, and performance work.