Karen Barseghyan

“Born in 1979 Gyumri, Armenia.
Has graduated from Yerevan Academy of Fine Arts in 2003. Barseghyan has exhibited his artworks in Armenia and abroad. As well as he is a co-founder of “15/3” art group (2007).”

Karen Barseghyan is a renowned curator known for his innovative approach to art curation. He curated the VII Gyumri International Biennal in 2010, as well as groundbreaking exhibitions such as “Installation,” “We and Men Around Us,” and “POP-ART 80-00” at gallery 15/3 in 2008. His work promotes artistic diversity and pushes the boundaries of contemporary art.

“Karen addresses analysis and interpretation in his paintings through criticizing Armenian consumer culture. Since 2006 Karen’s way of expression has been based on jeans materials. Jeans is the resemblance of the society. “There is no welfare and status difference, no elitism in case of jeans; people interact ignoring the differences”, – says Karen.
The author criticizes mass culture, evokes social and political issues. As a fact, Karen Barseghyan makes everyday clothing turn into a platform for raising social problems. Thus the artist turns jeans (the fabric material which has immediate contact with a human body) into the core material for his art, for his creative world, for the way of feeling problems, raising them and announcing them loudly.

text by Armenak Grigoryan”

2018 MAP – Kellergalerie montartphon AIR 2018, Schruns, Austria
2018 Town House Bonn, Germany
2017 Quotation Marks – Karen Barseghyan – Public Television of …
2017 Hartak Workshop Festival
2016 “Armenian Jeans” – Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Embassy of Switzerland in Armenia
2016 Second Hand Solo Exhibition & Workshop
2015 “Armenian Jeans” – Yerevan, Armenia, German Embassy, Yerevan
2014 “Armenian Jeans” – Yerevan, Armenia
2013 “Reflection” Gallery 25 at Berlin Art Hotel, Gyumri, Armenia
2009 “Don’t Keep Inside” – VRIJE ACADEMIE WERKPLAATS VOOR BEELDENDE KUNSTEN DEN HAAG, the Netherlands

2021 GTC, ART INSIGHT, Gyumri, Armenia
2020 Shame and Jealousy Imposing Art, Annual Festival of Alternative Art, ACCEA
2019 Mushtopia art & architecture in motion, ACCEA Yerevan, Armenia
2019 Mushtopia art & architecture in motion, Gyumri, Armenia
2019 EXTENSION.AM Triumph gallery, Moscow, Russia
2018 MAP – Kellergalerie montartphon AIR 2018, Schruns, Austria
2018 MAP – Kellergalerie montartphon (Leninakan-Gyumri), Schruns, Austria
2018 Armenia Art Fair Gallery25, Yerevan, Armenia
2018 ACCEA Yerevan, Armenia
2017 Human Planet, Istanbul, Turkey
2017 Human Planet, Bursa, Turkey
2016 HA-SS fest ACCEA Yerevan, Armenia
2015 #3CityLink: Translocal Creative Exchange
2015 25G25, Gallery 25, Gyumri, Armenia
2015 Art Village Taipei, Taiwan
2015 Armenian and Japanese contemporary art, Creativity Center, Yokohama, Japan
2015 kamq ar kjanq, Styl gallery, Gyumri, Armenia
2014 Dalan gallery, Yerevan, Armenia
2014 Living Art, Gallery25, Gyumri, Armenia
2014 Step, Artists’ Union of Armenia, Yerevan
2014 Exhibition at Sezession Nordwest, Wilhelmshaven, Germany
2014 Art Innsbruck 2014, Innsbruck, Austria
2013 The water of our vision flows through this soil, Gallery 25, Gyumri, Armenia
2012 Gallery 25 at Berlin Art Hotel, Gyumri, Armenia
2012 Artist in residence in USA, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts
2012 QR Labyrinth, Gallery 25 at Berlin Art Hotel, Gyumri, Armenia
2012 Armenian and Japanese contemporary art, Creativity Center, Yokohama, Japan
2012 Gyumri’s 7th International Biennial, Gyumri, Armenia
2012 A Lumine festival, Gallery 25 at Berlin Art Hotel, Gyumri, Armenia
2012 Entrance, Gallery 25 at Berlin Art Hotel, Gyumri, Armenia
2011 City.Territory.Space.Person, Gallery Style, Gyumri
2011 Das Bier, Gallery 25 at Berlin Art Hotel, Gyumri, Armenia
2011 Like That Polyvinyl Acetate, Galentz Museum, Yerevan, Armenia
2011 Disaster as a norm of life, Gyumri, Armenia
2011 View: Armenian contemporary art, Yerevan, Armenia
2010 New figurative art in Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia
2010 OPTIMIZM-Armenian New Art, Yerevan, Armenia
2009 Museum Night, Gallery of Mariam and Eranuhi Aslamazyan Sisters
2009 Football Diplomacy interactive project, Gallery 25 at Berlin Art Hotel, Gyumri, Armenia
2009 Artist in residence VRIJE ACADEMIE DEN HAAG
2008 6th Gyumri International Biennial, Gyumri, Armenia
2008 Feminism 15/3, Gyumri, Armenia
2008 Installation 15/3, Gallery 25 at Berlin Art Hotel, Gyumri, Armenia
2008 Portrait, ACCEA Yerevan, Armenia
2008 POP ART -80-00 15/3, Gyumri, Armenia
2007 Yerevan Crisis, ACCEA, Yerevan, Armenia
2006 Armenian International Style, AKANAT Gallery, Yerevan, Armenia
2003 Dedicated Exhibition – 15 years of Earthquake in Gyumri, Aleppo, Syria
2002 Alternative Art, ACCEA, Yerevan, Armenia
2002 Armenian Contemporary Painters, Saad and Abad Cultural Center, Tehran, Iran
2000 Academy presented Abu-Dhabi
1998 1st Gyumri International Biennial, Gyumri, Armenia