Narek Barseghyan

For Narek Barseghyan, painting is less about formal representation and more a method of “artistic documentation.” Born in Yerevan in 1993, Barseghyan’s trajectory as a visual artist is deeply rooted in the shifting landscapes of post-Soviet Armenia. While his early training at the Panos Terlemezian College and the Yerevan State Academy of Fine Arts provided a classical foundation, his work has consistently pushed against those boundaries, seeking a raw, more immediate resonance with the world around him.

 

Barseghyan’s practice is defined by a keen sensitivity to the “unspoken” stories held within environments. Whether he is exploring the hyper-stylized aesthetics of 90s Armenian pop culture, the gritty textures of Yerevan street life, or the delicate, often tense reality of life in border communities, his work acts as a bridge between personal identity and collective memory. His 2015 “Identity” series, which earned him the Presidential Youth Prize, marked the beginning of a career-long fascination with how individuals navigate the political and physical landscapes that shape them.

 

In recent years, his style has evolved from the hyper-realistic into a more fluid, expressive language. He often abandons traditional perspective in favor of flattened, collage-like compositions that incorporate vivid color, multilingual text, and experimental materials like glitter and masks. This approach allows him to capture the “noise and solitude” of modern existence, blending influences from masters like Bacon and Basquiat with the contemporary energy of his surroundings.

 

Beyond the canvas, Barseghyan is an active educator and collaborator, having led workshops at the TUMO Center for Creative Technologies and participated in prestigious residencies like the Villa Empain in Brussels. Through solo exhibitions such as “Fragments from the Soviet Past” and “Growing Up on the Border,” he continues to delve into the fabric of existence, ensuring that his images remain inextricably linked to the reality from which they emerge. He lives and works in Yerevan, where he continues to question the boundaries between the artist, the citizen, and the land.