Upcoming exhibitions
Extra-Muros
du 13 août au 17 septembre 2017
Grand-Cachot-de-Vent, La Chaux-du-Milieu
Recent exhibitions
Au joli moi de mai
Rue Haute 1, Bienne
Avec Robert Schüll, Enrico Luisoni, Daniel Gaemperle, & Caroline von Gunten
June 3, from 6 p.m.
Serj Tankian - Alina Mnatsakanian
An exhibition in C minor
Paintings, music, animated paintings
MARCH 18 – APRIL 14, 2017
OPENING RECEPTION:
SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 2017, 6 – 8 PM
GARBOUSHIAN GALLERY is proud to present a unique and expansive visual and auditory experience with An Exhibition in C Minor, featuring the site-specific collaborative work of artists, Serj Tankian and Alina Mnatsakanian.
Through an experimental collaboration, transmedia artist Alina Mnatsakanian and Serj Tankian, singer, songwriter, artist and composer from the award-winning band System of A Down paired up to give in to an instinctual collaborative art process where their mutual creative energy could seamlessly blend into a multi-sensory experience of both auditory and visual expression. Within this exploration, Mnatsakanian and Tankian utilized new technology in various ways to further enhance the experience of exhibition-goers, and truly explore the power of contemporary art and music.
The artistic collaboration came from the similar sensitivities of combining art with music. Inspired by Tankian's music, Mnatsakanian created animated and hybrid abstract paintings, while Tankian simultaneously composed original music, based on Mnatsakanian’s art. Hybrid paintings mix conventional methods of painting and drawing with computer-generated art, while in the animated paintings the image evolves gradually over the duration of the music, and the viewer sees many mutations of the work.
ABOUT SERJ TANKIAN:
A singer, poet, songwriter, visual artist, activist, and composer; Serj Tankian has always created music as an outlet to express his thoughts and feelings with a level of passion and consciousness that few in today’s world of music can rival.
Early in his musical career, Serj found an outlet as the rabble–rousing lead singer and songwriter of the largely successful rock band System of a Down, a band that has reached into the hearts and minds of millions of people relaying multiple messages of love, awareness and activism. System of a Down has 5 studio album releases, three of which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, and has also been nominated for four Grammy Awards and snagged one in 2006 for 'Best Hard Rock Performance' for their song "B.Y.O.B."
In recent years, Tankian has split his time between holding a mic and paintbrush, having feverishly created over 40 pieces of art since 2013. His journey into the world of fine art began with his Disarming Time Musical and since then, he has had multiple exhibitions at galleries in both the United States as well as New Zealand. Highlights include works exhibited at the grand opening of New Museum Los Gatos in Northern California as part of a group exhibit that ran through September of 2015, and inclusion in the 2015 Auckland Arts Festival: “White Night” in New Zealand.
ABOUT ALINA MNATSAKANIAN:
Alina Mnatsakanian is a transmedia artist based in Switzerland, with an artistic background that spans from painting to new media conceptual works, using mediums as varied as robots, software, technological and scientific elements, everyday objects, painting, drawing, video and audio. She holds a BA in Visual Arts from the University of Paris 8, and a Master of Visual Arts from California State University, Los Angeles. She has exhibited her work in the United States, Canada, Europe, Switzerland and Armenia; She has received awards from, among others, the Swiss Federal Office of Culture, Swiss Artists in Labs and California Council for the Humanities. She has held residencies at the Institute of Artificial Intelligence in Lugano, Switzerland; Grand Central Art Center in California; and Art and Cultural Studies Laboratory (ACSL) in Yerevan, Armenia.
Selected exhibitions
2017 MACT/CACT contemporary art museum, Bellinzona, Switzerland
2016 Musée des Beaux-Arts, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland
2015 MultipleSpacings gallery, Bern, Switzerland (solo)
2015 Moncton University, Moncton, Canada
2015 EPFL Rolex learning center, Lausanne, Switzerland
2014 Galerie C, Neuchâtel, Switzerland (robotic performance)
2014 Modern art museum, Yerevan, Armenia
2013 Gallerie Nelly L’Eplattenier, Lausanne, Switzerland
2012 Università la Sapienza, Museo Laboratorio di Arte Contemporanea, Rome, Italy
2012 The Leonardo museum, Salt Lake City, Utah
2011 MACT/CACT contemporary art museum, Bellinzona, Switzerland
2011 San Francisco Art Institue, San Francisco, California
2011 Musée d’art et d’histoire, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
2010 National Gallery, Yerevan, Armenia
2010 MACT/CACT contemporary art museum, Bellinzona, Switzerland
2010 Gallerie Nelly L’Eplattenier, Lausanne, Switzerland (solo)
2009 Grand Central Art Center, Santa Ana, California
2009 Musée d'histoire, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland (solo)
2009 Center for contemporary experimental art, Yerevan, Armenia (solo)
2008 Musée d'art et d'histoire de Neuchâtel, Switzerland
2007 Musée des Beaux-Arts, La Chaux-de-Fonds
2005 Sam Francis Gallery, Santa Monica, California
2004 University of California, Los Angeles, California
2000 California State University, Los Angeles, California (solo)
1999 L.A. Artcore Brewery Annex, Los Angeles, California
Garboushian Gallery
427 North Camden Drive, Beverly Hills CA 90210
www.garboushian.com
Message in a bottle, 2016, Musée des Beaux-arts, La Chaux-de-Fonds