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
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 Representing Arame Art Gallery USA
2015 ‘’Artworks of Honorable Artists’’ USA
2015 ‘’Inner Lighthouse’’ Beirut, Lebanon
2016 Armenian Masters of Contemporery Art USA
2016 Representing the book ”Art Beyond Time” Yerevan, Armenia
2016 “Enchanted Reality” Beirut, Lebanon
2017 ‘’Beirut Art Fair’’ Beirut Lebanon
2017 ‘’Celebration of Dreams’’ Beirut, Lebanon
2018 ‘’World Art Dubai’’ Dubai
2018 ''Reality of Bliss'' Beiruit , Lebanon
2018 "Beirut Art Fair" Beirut, Lebanon
2018 ‘’Between Heaven and Earth’’ Beirut, Lebanon
2019 “Contemporary Armenian Fine Art” Kuwait
2019 ''Daydreams on Canvas'' Beirut, Lebanon
2019 "Beirut Art Fair" Beirut Lebanon
2019 “Symphony of Colours” Kuwait
2020 – “Spring Salon 2020”. Artist’s Union of Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia
Personal exhibitions
1999 Gallery Caribe Sao Paulo, Brazil
2004 “Terra Nova” at Academy Gallery Yerevan, Armenia
2015 16 December, Arame Art Gallery Presents «Inner Lighthouse» in Beirut, Lebanon
2016, 27 May, Representing the book ”Art Beyond Time”
2016, 18 December, Arame Art Gallery Presents “Enchanted Reality” in Beirut, Lebanon
2017, 24 November, Arame Art Gallery Presents «Celebration of Dreams» in Beirut, Lebanon
2018, 9 December, Arame Art Gallery Presents ‘’Between Heaven and Earth’’ in Beirut, Lebanon
2019, 18-22 Sept. "Beirut Art Fair"
2022 Under the patronage of the Kuwait National Council for Culture, Arts & Letters “Armenian Art” in Kuwait with the collaboration of Aramé Art Gallery, presents “Magical Transformations” – a unique art exhibition featuring more than 90 beautiful artworks
Two Riddles, 2017
The Silent Ones, 2014
Trembling, 2015
The Favorites of the Future, 2017
The Whites 2, 2017
The heart of the Tree, 2019
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
Letter from an Angel , 2023
The seedling, 2023
A little land, 2023
Whispers, 2020
The Fortune, 2024
Conversations about Light, 2024
Leonardo in Armenia, 2024
Tools, 2024
Facing the Life, 2024
Away, 2024
A Letter from an Angel 2, 2024
A Horse from Another Country, 2024
The Key from Western Armenia, 2020
Heaven, 2023
Secret Life, 2024
The Ones that Appeared, 2024
Guardian Angels, 2023
Land Seekers, 2024
Ripped off, 2022
The Gene, 2023
The Tree that Lives in the Sky, 2024
The Inconspicuous, 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
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
