Artists’ Union of Armenia hosted the exhibition of SAFAA graduates
The exhibition-hall on the second floor of the Artists’ Union of Armenia gave an excellent opportunity to the current year graduates of State Academy of Fine Arts of Armenia to organize the exhibition of their diploma works. It was only in terms of location that the hall couldn’t host the whole variety of works; the ones introduced were works of painting, graphics and ceramics that left a pleasant impression on visitors in terms of the level of performance.
SAFAA has a year-long tradition of awarding students, namely in the fields of painting, graphics and sculpture. This year it expanded its frames involving all the departments. The awards were handed at the opening of the exhibition that was attended by the Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Arayik Harutyunyan.
Congratulating the graduates, Suren Safaryan, the president of Artists’ Union gladly mentioned that the creative qualities of students had yearly recorded noticeable growth and that he himself as a member of the commission was very proud to note that. The Rector of the Academy Aram Isabekyan evaluated the exhibition as a satisfying result of year-long joint work between students and teachers. According to him, it is a delight not only for the institution but also for our people “as far as these young artists will serve their talent to our people and the culture”.
The Artists’ Union in its turn had a surprise for the graduates. Seven students immediately received membership cards by Suren Safaryan; those were Lilit Martirosyan, Arevik Aroyan, Viktorya Shahbazyan, Marieta Arzumanyan, Meri Yepremyan, Rima Nanyan, Lina Gagikyan. He thanked the Minister noting that the latter always found time to participate in the exhibitions organized by the Union; “this is a sign showing the attention the Artists’ Union is paid by the State”. Aram Isabekyan gifted a beautiful ceramic work to Arayik Harutyunyan and expressed the Academy’s support to the latter while simultaneously expecting the State focus on arts education.
Prior to that, the Rector had awarded the graduates with prizes. MA level graduate Enwen Yang won the prize of “Eduard Isabekyan” for the best diploma work in the field of Painting (“Miners”). His voluminous compositional work was the artistic portrayal of Armenian workers. Aram Isabekyan praised BA level graduate Arevik Aroyan’s large-scale work on the theme of 1988’s earthquake. She was awarded with the first prize in the name of “Eduard Isabekyan” for the canvas “December 88”. The second prize of “Eduard Isabekyan” was awarded to the BA level graduate from Painting department Raffi Ghazaryan for the diploma work “Night city” and Taguhi Hayrapetyan respectively took the third prize of “Eduard Isabekyan” for her diploma work “Atelier”.
MA level graduate Viktorya Shahbazyan from Graphics department won the prize of “Hakob Kojoyan” for the series of “Bionics”. The 1st prize of “Hakob Kojoyan” was awarded to BA level graduate Liana Adikyan for the series “Bipolar affective disorder”, respectively Tatevik Tadevosyan was awarded the 2nd prize of “Hakob Kojoyan” for the work “Maternity” and Anna Gapoyan received the 3rd prize of “Hakob Kojoyan” for “Doors of Gyumri”.
The prize for the best diploma work from Applied Arts department was awarded to MA level graduate Elmira Chopikyan (“The battle of Dzirav” chess figures in sculptures), 1st and 2nd prizes were given to Diana Hovhannisyan and Ruzanna Gasparyan. 1st prize for Computer graphics was awarded to Voskehat Tadevosyan, 2nd one to Suren Grigoryan and 3rd one to Fenya Avetisyan. As for Design department the prize for the best diploma work was given to Sabina Karapetyan, 1st prize- to Misak Mkrtchyan, 2nd one to Anush Hovsepyan and the 3rd prize was awarded to Gor Grigoryan. The prize for the best diploma work of Fashion design department was awarded to Narek Jahangiryan, the 1st prize went to Ani Martirosyan, the 2nd one to Ani Voskanyan and finally the third one to Regine Badalyan.
Melanya Badalyan
Translated by Naira Stepanyan