RUBEN GRIGORIAN
1954 Born in Yerevan, Armenia
1978-1984 Studied at Yerevan State Academy of Fine Arts
1983-1988 Art producer at Yerevan Youth Theatre
Since 1985 Member of Artists' Union of Armenia
Since 2000 is working at National Cinema Center, Yerevan, Armenia
Has illustrated 25 children books.
Group Exhibitions
1990 New Academy Gallery London, England
1990 Armenian Avant-garde Artists group show Kassel, Germany
1994 Stream of Fire: New Art from Armenia Nicosia, Cyprus
1995 Moscow days of Armenian Culture Moscow, Russia
1995 Bochum days of Armenian Culture Bochum, Germany
1999 Gallery Caribe Sao Paulo, Brazil
2004 “Terra Nova” at Academy Gallery Yerevan, Armenia
2007 Orangerie du Luxembourg Musée D'Art Moderne D'Armenie Paris, France
2008 I colori dell Armenia, Castel Sant'Angelo Roma, Italy
2010 New Masterpieces of Arame Art Gallery Yerevan, Armenia
2011 UNESCO Palace Beirut, Lebanon
2011 Contemporary Art Istanbul, Turkey
2012 Grand Opening of a New Art Center of Arame Art Gallery Yerevan, Armenia
2012 "Symphony of Colors" Beirut, Lebanon
2013 10th Anniversary of Arame Art Gallery Yerevan, Armenia
2013 Selected Art Works Beirut, Lebanon
2013 AGBU Contemporary Armenian Art Pasadena, USA
2013 Contemporary Art Istanbul, Turkey
2013 "Sensual Revelations" Beirut, Lebanon
2013 Representing Arame Art Gallery in Las Vegas USA
2014 "Beauty in the Palm'' Beirut, Lebanon
2015 "Artworks of Honorable Artists" USA
2015 Arame Art Gallery Presents «Inner Lighthouse» in Beirut, Lebanon
2016 Armenian Masters of Contemporery Art USA
2016 Representing the book ”Art Beyond Time” Yerevan, Armenia
2016 Representing the book ”Art Beyond Time”
2016 Arame Art Gallery Presents “Enchanted Reality” in Beirut, Lebanon
2017 "Beirut Art Fair" Beirut Lebanon
2017 Arame Art Gallery Presents «Celebration of Dreams» in Beirut, Lebanon
2018 Arame Art Gallery Presents ‘’Between Heaven and Earth’’ in Beirut, Lebanon
2018 "World Art Dubai" Dubai
2018 ''Reality of Bliss'' Beiruit , Lebanon
2018 "Beirut Art Fair" Beirut, Lebanon
2019 “Contemporary Armenian Fine Art” Kuwait
2019 ''Daydreams on Canvas'' Beirut, Lebanon
2019 “Symphony of Colours” Kuwait
2020 “Spring Salon 2020”. Artist’s Union of Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia
2020 10th Anniversary Beirut Branch
2021 Grand opening of Aramé Art Gallery new Branch in Beirut at Zeytuna Bay
2021 Welcoming International Art Collectors at Aramé Art Gallery in Yerevan
2021 Qatar International Art Festival 2021 (QIAF)
2022 A uniquw art show featuring the works of most renowned Armenian contemporary artists at Aramé Art Gallery Zaitunay Bay, Beirut, Lebanon
2023 20th anniversary of the foundation of Aramé Art Gallery, Yerevan, Armenia
2024 "On the Eve of Revival", a collective show featuring works by contemporary Armenian artists.
2025 Aramé Art Gallery is participated in the 6th edition of Art Cairo at the Grand Egyptian Museum.
Trembling, 2015
The Favorites of the Future, 2017
The Whites 2, 2017
The bird from the past, 2020
The Poet, 2021
The Quiet Ones, 2021
The Life in the Palm, 2022
Letter from an Angel, 2022
Friends after Long Time, 2021
The Star, 2021
The Homesick, 2021
The Cherished, 2022
Book, 2016
The seedling, 2023
A little land, 2023
Whispers, 2020
The Fortune, 2024
Leonardo in Armenia, 2024
Facing the Life, 2024
A Horse from Another Country, 2024
The Key from Western Armenia, 2020
Secret Life, 2024
The Ones that Appeared, 2024
Ripped off, 2022
The Gene, 2023
The Tree that Lives in the Sky, 2024
The Tree with its Leaf, 2024
The Thorn, 2024
The Sky in Mind, 2024
The Next Ones, 2023
The Important One, 2022
The Nest, 2021
Former World, 2024
Coming out of the Picture 2, 2025
Sky Watchers, 2025
Air, 2025
Appeared 2, 2025
Brothers and Sisters, 2022
Clouds and Tree in the room, 2025
Code, 2025
Continuation, 2025
Dawn on the street of angels, 2025
Gift from the 15th century, 2025
Greeters, 2025
Invitation from an Angel, 2025
Radio music for plants, 2025
The angel found in the mist, 2025
The First, 2025
The heart of the tree 2, 2025
The hunter's portrait, 2025
The Next Ones 3, 2025
The tailor's portrait, 2025
The tree and its leaf 2, 2025
Travelers, 2025
Argentum, 2007
Ceiling and floor, 2013
Doubt, 2015
Inhabitants, 2017
The leaf and its shadow, 2020
The life of stones, 2022
The Wanderers, 2014
There are no borders 2, 2018
Thoughts, 2015
Two opinions, 2014
Sky Watchers, 2015
The Breath 2, 2024
Far Away, 2025
Ruben Grigorian’s refined paintings resonate with symbolic significance. His choice of subjects is arbitrary: he will paint a goat’s head, a bit of a Renaissance painting, a hunk of raw meat, or a closed door. Within a geometric compositional order, he allows the disparate meaning of his subjects to bounce against each other.
Grigorian has perfected his skill as a painter, and each canvas reflects his virtuosity in rendering. But a comprehensive meaning for each picture remains elusive; his surreal juxtapositions seem irrational, electric, and even ironic. He compares his works with physical trajectory of a glance.
Kathryn Hixson
Art critic
Asked why he started to paint, Ruben Grigorian answers without hesitation. “The smell of oils. We had neighbours when I was a child who were artists and I was drawn to their studio by the smell of their paints. Even now, I love that smell.”
His own studio, shared with his artist wife, occupies a small back room of their flat. It smells of neither paint nor white spirit nor anything else. It is scrupulously clean. In one corner his brushers, ranked by size, sit in jars on a narrow shelf, On the wall beside them, pallet knives, staples, stencils, scissors hang in their allotted place.
Grigorian himself is a small, neat man whose quiet assurance seems to defy the chaos and difficulties of the last few years. “The changes have been challenging, of course. As an artist I have found it a very stimulating period. But it’s not just what’s been happening here, the collapse of Soviet Union. It appears there’s a shift in the whole global situation. I am interested in the eclecticism of these changes, how they seem to pull in both East and West-Armenia is the kind of joint between them”.
Philip Marsden
