The opening ceremony of the second annual Armenia Art Fair took place in Yerevan Expo Center on May 31. 35 galleries and curators exhibited contemporary artists from Armenia, Iran, Belarus, Ukraine, Israel, USA, Spain and UK during the four days of the fair. From May 25 to June 2 Art Week was first introduced, a new format which stands for series of discussions on the topics of new art markets, the connection between art and new technologies, art and data.
Interview: Margarit Mirzoyan
Vista Gallery, was established in Tehran in 2013 and aims to support the contemporary Iranian artists. Under the management of Mrs. Parisa Pahlavan, the gallery organized over 60 individual and group exhibitions illustrating the works of around 200 local artists both emerging and established. The gallery also published numerous art books and came up with “Vista Great Award” initiative, all of which aimed at supporting modern artists in Iran. In 2015, they tried a new format and approach in Iran called “Vista Plus” displaying video art, photography, media works such as installations created with acrylic or colored pencils and embroideries on canvas. The representative of the gallery told us about the essence of the gallery and the artworks presented in it.
Vista Art Gallery Director Mrs. Parisa Pahlavan
“Our international consultant of the gallery recommended us several art fairs and we chose to come to Armenia as we had heard about the success of the previous Armenian Art Fair.” It was hard for them to get here because of the international restriction for transferring finance and artworks, however, at the end of the day they managed to make it.
For the Armenian Art Fair the gallery chose to present the paintings and an installation of five women artists, who had solo exhibitions in their galleries. They thought these would be quite relevant for the Armenian society and the reaction from people was quite positive. The representatives of the gallery indicated that the fair managed to convey the multicultural nature of the event and it was interesting for them to see and gain an understanding of Armenian contemporary art. The gallery plans to visit the next Armenian Art Fair with even larger number of artworks.
An untitled painting of a beautiful woman without a mouth, a tender exposition of an embroidery on canvas; this is what Iranian modern art represents today.
