Viewing Room
INSIDE LOOKING OUT
TIGRAN TSITOGDHZYAN
To coincide with Singapore
Art Week, Opera Gallery is thrilled to
present the unique art of Tigran Tsitoghdzyan. For the occasion, a curated selection of
feature pieces is presented alongside the artist’s latest works, created especially for this
exhibition.
Tigran Tsitogdhzyan
Presence/Absence (diptych)
2012
Oil on canvas
121,9 cm - 48 in each
Tigran Tsitogdhzyan
Alone
2015
Oil on canvas
190,5 x 127 cm - 75 x 50 in
Tigran Tsitogdhzyan
Untitled
2013
Oil on canvas
91,4 x 91,4 cm - 36 x 36 in
Although very realistic and seemingly inspired by photo-manipulations,
Tigran’s Mirror paintings are a slow, work-intensive painting process. Most
of the time during the creation of the artwork, he paints without any
reference picture.
The artist contemplates how society has become obsessed with self-portraits and how the life we
display on social media is distorted. Today, self-portraiture is an integral part of our culture
and
is accessible to everyone.
Tigran Tsitogdhzyan
Mirror K
2020
Oil on canvas
213,4 x 152,4 cm - 84 x 60 in
Tigran Tsitogdhzyan
Mirror C
2020
Oil on canvas
213,4 x 152,4 cm - 84 x 60 in
Tigran Tsitogdhzyan
Mirror J
2020
Oil on canvas
213,4 x 152,4 cm - 84 x 60 in
Tigran is fascinated by how we choose to over-expose our lives online and
the way we use filters to enhance our portraits. We edit, manipulate visual
and textual messages to show a specific image of ourselves, and discard
the rest.
Thus, Tigran questions our relationship with an ever-evolving reality
altered by a constant flow of new aesthetics. The artist paints faces,
unfiltered, piercing through closed hands —the natural gesture for hiding
one’s face.
Tigran Tsitogdhzyan
#artlovers
2018
Oil on linen
203,2 cm - 80 in
Other paintings such as #artlovers (2018) and
Alone (2015) display in
more assertive terms a questioning about our self-absorption and the
effects of anxiety. The artist shows us the excesses caused by extreme
disclosure on social networks.
Tigran Tsitogdhzyan
#artviewers
2018
Oil on canvas
203,2 cm - 80 in
In this exclusive body of work, Tigran also presents his mixed media series,
such as his Reimagined works. Following the
philosophical
principle of
reflection theorised by Locke (the mind thinking on itself, and creating
ideas from these thoughts) Tigran reinterprets,
reflects on
former works
and turns them into brand-new ones.
From oil on canvas, they become mixed media on paper, enhanced by
hand drawings.
Tigran Tsitogdhzyan
Mirror Reimagined
2020
Mixed media on paper
213.4 x 152.4 cm - 84 x 60 in
Tigran Tsitogdhzyan
DS Mirror Reimagined
2020
Mixed media on paper
213.4 x 152.4 cm - 84 x 60 in
Tigran Tsitogdhzyan
Mirror Reimagined
2020
Mixed media on paper
213.4 x 152.4 cm - 84 x 60 in
Tigran Tsitogdhzyan
Vanity Mirror Reimagined
2020
Mixed media on paper
213.4 x 152.4 cm - 84 x 60 in
Tigran Tsitogdhzyan
Mirror II Reimagined
2020
Mixed media on paper
213.4 x 152.4 cm - 84 x 60 in
His newer series titled Self Isolation evidently finds
echo
in the profound
disruptions of 2020. Still based on the principle of layering representations
of a model reminiscent of double exposure effects, these paintings feature
full bodies in intricate positions.
The artist paints figures confined and framed in a hindered freedom of
movement, evocative of moments lived in recent months. Self
Isolation
exposes this deep desire for freedom as well as the limitation of privacy in
our culture. More than ever, Tigran Tsitoghdzyan alludes to the importance
we give to self-exposure, the pressure that it puts on us but also the
necessity to stop being self-absorbed in those times.
Tigran Tsitogdhzyan
Self Isolation
2019
Oil on canvas
203,2 x 203,2 cm - 80 x 80 in
Tigran Tsitogdhzyan
Self Isolation II
2020
Oil on canvas
203,2 x 203,2 cm - 80 x 80 in
Tigran Tsitogdhzyan
Self Isolation III
2020
Oil on canvas
203,2 x 203,2 cm - 80 x 80 in
Tigran Tsitogdhzyan
Mirror Metamorphosis
2020
Mixed media on paper
104,4 x 104,1 cm - 41 x 41 in
Tigran Tsitogdhzyan
Mirror Metamorphosis Crowded III
2020
Mixed media on paper
104.4 x 104.4 cm - 41 x 41 in
TIGRAN TSITOGHDZYAN is an Armenian
visual artist based in New York City. Very
early on he sparked the interest of Henrik
Iguityan, the founder of the Modern Art
and the Children’s Art Museum in Armenia,
who curated his first exhibition at age 10.
The show gathered so much attention that
it travelled to many countries, including the
US, Russia, Japan or Spain.
Tigran later pursued his studies at the École
Cantonale d’Art du Valais, Switzerland.
With his hyper-realistic and photoinspired
oil paintings, Tigran conquered
the Contemporary Art world and is now
exhibited in international institutions in
Europe, America, Asia and Africa.
The artist portrays black and white
representations of, and reflections about
our society’s struggles and desires.
For instance, he portrayed the evolving
relationship between us and the online world
in his series Mirrors and
Mirror Reimagined.
Seemingly inspired by the current stated of
events in his latest series Self Isolation, the
artist represents the chaos between the will
of freedom and the limitation of privacy.