softgrey
flaunt the imperfection
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When he was a child, Vahakn Arslanian's mother tried to rein in his destructive habit of shattering glass. In the early '80s, when he was five years old, he visited Julian Schnabel's studio; Schnabel gave the child a hammer to break pots for a work in progress, and the painter immediately recognized a fellow artist. Deaf since birth and diagnosed as autistic, Arslanian has developed his cathartic destruction into a distinctive oeuvre. His prolific output of mixed-media works, made with the benefit of very little formal art training, was featured in a retrospective at Andrew Edlin Gallery in 2003, when the artist was not yet 28.
Arslanian captures everyday objects with straightforward strokes. Airplanes, birds, candles, and subway cars are recurring subjects — sometimes becoming visually intermixed — while light bulbs, Coke cans, and flowers also catch his fancy. Every work is presented in a finished form that incorporates a found picture frame, discarded window, or piece of old furniture. Window Candles, is a wooden sash with six panes that he transformed into a stage for a troupe of drawn candles, burning at different lengths. Boeing 747 uses a shattered airplane window as the sculptural frame for a suspended drawing of a jet.
Born in Belgium in 1975, Arslanian brings to mind two of that country's most famous artists. His symmetrically arranged objects in multipanel frames are pictograms to the unconscious, relating to similar works by René Magritte, while his transformation of found furniture recalls the poetic works of Marcel Broodthaers. In Arslanian's sensitive hands, archetypal objects become luminous talismans and foreboding symbols of an unheard world. (JK)
Andrew Edlin Gallery presents Arslanian's work at the Outsider Art Fair at the Puck Building in New York January 27-29.
Arslanian captures everyday objects with straightforward strokes. Airplanes, birds, candles, and subway cars are recurring subjects — sometimes becoming visually intermixed — while light bulbs, Coke cans, and flowers also catch his fancy. Every work is presented in a finished form that incorporates a found picture frame, discarded window, or piece of old furniture. Window Candles, is a wooden sash with six panes that he transformed into a stage for a troupe of drawn candles, burning at different lengths. Boeing 747 uses a shattered airplane window as the sculptural frame for a suspended drawing of a jet.
Born in Belgium in 1975, Arslanian brings to mind two of that country's most famous artists. His symmetrically arranged objects in multipanel frames are pictograms to the unconscious, relating to similar works by René Magritte, while his transformation of found furniture recalls the poetic works of Marcel Broodthaers. In Arslanian's sensitive hands, archetypal objects become luminous talismans and foreboding symbols of an unheard world. (JK)
Andrew Edlin Gallery presents Arslanian's work at the Outsider Art Fair at the Puck Building in New York January 27-29.
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