Nairi Mesropyan

Nairi comes from a family of an artist. Despite this, the longest formal education in painting he received was a two-month course with Tigran Asatryan. The rest of the schooling (if one may call that so) consisted of two parts. One was the time spent in his father’s studio. The second was at the Sta...

Nairi comes from a family of an artist. Despite this, the longest formal education in painting he received was a two-month course with Tigran Asatryan. The rest of the schooling (if one may call that so) consisted of two parts. One was the time spent in his father’s studio. The second was at the State Yerevan State Institute of Theatre and Cinematography. He studied to be an actor but would frequently skive off his classes to attend the ones for set designers. Among the latter was his childhood friend Areg Mirijanyan.

This being said, his art has largely been intuitive. Once, when Nairi was 11 years old he created a painting in his father’s studio. Coming back to finish it the next day, he discovered that the canvas was gone. The answer to his demands for presenting the unfinished work was that it had been sold. Apparently, some collectors had visited the studio the day before and picked his work together with those of a professional artist.

Nairi’s favourite mediums are acrylic and canvas. Although he mostly uses brushes for his artwork, he also makes use of less conventional means such as dust clothes, unwanted credit cards and his own fingers.

Although Nairi’s artwork may be referred to as abstract, there are a number of recurring themes such as doors, windows and other portals as symbols of a long-sought home and an entryway into his inner world. Painted at the time of distress and disappointment, the doors are shut to the world. However, every now and again they become half open willing to let others in. The list of motives also includes the storm and the spiral symbol of eternity. At an exhibition called “The Upstairs Neighbor Film” Nairi presented his “self-portrait” - a white canvas covered in black stripes.

“When it comes to Nairi, art is deeply personal. He has been using art to express his inner world, his feelings over certain events, to close or to start a period in his life and to let go of things he was unable to do otherwise”, says Areg Mirijanyan.

Nairi is reluctant to talk about his artwork, since, not unlike many artists, he thinks that he expresses in his art what he cannot put into words and that what a viewer feels when they look at the painting is more important. Thus, we invite you to enter through the door into the world of nairi\_mesropyan\_art and contemplate the thoughts and emotions that his work awakens in you.