Armenian art at Cambridge School of Weston exhibit

A piece by Armenian-born Gagik Aroutiunian COURTESY PHOTO

The Thompson Gallery at The Cambridge School of Weston (CSW) will showcase "Kiss the Ground," a three-part exhibition series that examines and celebrates contemporary Armenian art, organized to overlap with the centennial memorialization of the 1915 Armenian Diaspora and Genocide. The three shows in the series explore Armenian culture from different vantage points, yet intersect on themes of memory, loss and celebration. 

Todd Bartel, gallery director and curator of the series, said he assembled the series to "demonstrate the power of memory during this particular hundred-year marker."

"The title of the series comes from the etymological roots of an Armenian word for liturgy, ‘yergurbakootyoon.’ A word that translates literally to mean ‘kissing the ground,’ and implies the idea of ‘effort,’" said Bartel. "Yergurbakootyoon also suggests reverence for land, for home, for country, for place, for people, and for a way of living."

The first exhibition in the series (Sept. 5 to Nov. 15) showcases the art of Armenian-born, Chicago-based Gagik Aroutiunian, whose art centers on issues of identity, memory and the displacement of family. Works on display will include multimedia assemblage sculptures, paintings and video projections.

"Sculptural processes and materials are manifestations of object matter," Aroutuinian said. "Images, video and light, on the other hand, represent illusion. While the first is a primary means for me to represent identity and its displacement, the second is a way to represent memory and its transience."

The second exhibition in the series (Dec. 18 to March 13) spotlights the paintings of Talin Megherian of Watertown and her interest in the stories and traditions of the Armenian people, compromised by the atrocities of the 1915 Armenian Diaspora. Giving voice to the memories of her family and Armenian women in general, Megherian’s colorful abstractions are lavishly bejeweled by representational and symbolic images of Armenian artifacts, braids, textile designs and Khatchkars.

"There are tragic stories from both sides of my family," said Megherian. "I feel compelled to give them a voice – in part, for a people that have not healed, in part for myself, and in part for my family that still remembers."

The final show in the series (March 30 to June 13, 2015) is a group exhibition that brings together a collection of Armenian artists working in diverse media – John Avakian (social justice printmaking), Gail Boyajian (allegorical painting), Adrienne Der Marderosian (works on paper), Jackie Kazarian (abstract painting), Aida Laleian (digital collage), Yefkin Megherian (bronze bas-reliefs), Marsha Odabashian (installation art), Kevork Mourad (gestural painting), and Apo Torosyan (film).

The exhibition will be held in three locations, including the Thompson Gallery, Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church in Cambridge, and the Armenian Library and Museum in Watertown, and will include a film series by Apo Torosyan at The Cambridge School of Weston.

The Thompson Gallery is located within the Garthwaite Center for Science and Art at The Cambridge School of Weston, located at 45 Georgian Road in Weston. For exhibit hours and to view exhibit art go online (Thompsongallery.csw.org).

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