The second edition of Armenia Art Fair was a tremendous success thanks to the hard work and dedication of the organizing team. While the booths may have been packed away now, the emotions generated by the artwork displayed at Yerevan Expo and the buzz of the event will stay with everyone who took part for a long time.
We had more than 3,000 visitors and sold art works for collectors from Russia, the USA and Armenia. We more than doubled the participation of galleries to 37 representing Armenia, USA, Belarusia, Ukraine, Germany, Iran, Spain, Israel, and the UK. We presented Armenia as an emerging venue for contemporary art on the international stage, with media coverage in many other countries.
The gala opening night attracted representatives of Yerevan’s political, diplomatic and cultural elite as well as a cool urban crowd who regarded the Armenia Art Fair as THE place to be seen as a model of the new modern Armenia. This was very attractive to our advertisers, who want to associate with this energetic and creative segment of the new Armenia.
Among the art works sold were such artists as :
Charles Atamian, ( Armenia) , Tigran Matulyan ,( Armenia) Ruben Grigoryan , ( Armenia) , Vahagn Hamalbashyan ,( Armenia) Diana Hakobyan ,( Armenia), Izarel Artisys ( Israel ), Hani Najm ( Iran),
We continued and developed key segments from our inaugural art fair including:
Emerging Artists: IEA presented by Iranian curator Karami Hamidreza, whoa has developed online platforms to promote young artists free and democratically, without censure . The State Academy of Fine Arts of Armenia featured twelve Armenian Emerging Artists ,
New Names: Curator, art critic and director of Curatorial Studies Institute, based in Bratislava, Slovakia Juraj Carny presented artists from Slovakia
This year we also presented two special One of the projects
“Talent for Export” focused on post-Soviet art, which is an important area of representation for AAF. Curated by independent curator and artist Oleg Kostyuchenko, it showcased a broad spectrum of talented artists from Belarus. The second project was the collaborative “Maifoto”. A project between Armenian and German artists (Armenia – Germany)
For the first time, the Armenia Art Fair featured Armenian Modern artists suach as : Henrik Siravian, the founder of the thematic compositional genre in Armenia Eduard Isabekian, and Felix Egizarian. Also The art fair also showcased Armenian artists from abroad including the Beirut based artist Mkrtich Mazmanian Armenia
In conjunction with the Art Fair we heldan art talk by Iain Robertson, from London’s Sotheby’s Institute of Art, as part of a commitment to encourage innovation in art production. There was also a Art and Technology program with Pau Garcia,who presented the lecture: A Love Story Between Data, People, and Art, and a workshop by Przemyslaw Jasielski who works on the intersection of engineering, art and science. The resulting artwork was presented at the Armenia Art Fair.
Art Fair also fulfilled its social mission by hosting two key projects that focused on breaking the taboo surrounding mental health and on promoting environmental responsibility to children through recycling. More on the Program page