Story behind

The project has been initiated by Armenia Art Fair

The project aims to reassess the aesthetic and economic value of Armenian modern and contemporary art by reintegrating it into the global cultural dialogue through a multifaceted approach encompassing exhibitions, educational initiatives, publications and international collaborations.

Project Goal

To rediscover and reintegrate Armenian modern and contemporary art into the broader international cultural dialogue, aiming to rejuvenate its standing within the family conversation about global art developments.

To produce a strong reassessment of the current and future reputation of practitioners of Armenian modern and contemporary art and the aesthetic and economic value of their work.

To establish and encourage a more interconnected cultural dialogue between Armenia and the Western world.

To promote Armenian Modern and Contemporary Art to an international audience, and establish a successful and recognizable "brand" for Armenian Art.

Armenia Art Fair was established in 2016 to address the issue of visibility for Armenian and regional contemporary art, promote emerging artists and new art regions, to seek to educate and inform an international audience about the cultural traditions and contemporary culture of the Region. To achieve its goals it has organized three editions of Armenia Art Fair (in 2018, 2019 and 2021), has implemented educational anc cultural activites and publications.

Zara Ouzounian-Halpin and Iain Roberston from the project team recently published a substantial book closely related to this project, A Pathway Through Armenian Modern and Contemporary Art with the support of The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Furthermore https://armeniaart.com/ was created to publicize and digitize Armenian modern visual artists and their work based on the book.

To scale up AAF efforts to promote awareness of Armenian art and artists at an international level, AAF has teamed up with local and international partners and key stakeholders such as :

The ARTIS research centre of the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon, ,in particular professors Luís U. Afonso, Pedro Lapa ICA Yerevan- providing academic expertise, institutional support and contributions on Armenian Contemporary Art to the project , publications and the exhibitions, in particular the director and critic Nazareth Karoyan

Institute of History of Georgian Art (IHGA) providing academic expertise and contributions on Armenian Modern Artists working in the Tiflis School in particular, Chief Researcher, M. Medzmariashvili

The project is managed by an international team based in Armenia, Dubai, Korea and UK.