Introduction
Star Gallery is pleased to present “Daily Strips”, Armen Eloyan’s first solo exhibition in Asia, from 15th October 2022. Eloyan’s painting involves a number of cartoon figures and cartoonized everyday objects. In the thirteen paintings that will appear in the exhibition, one will not only find the household cartoon characters, such as Pinocchio, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy, but also a group of anthropomorphic fruits and vegetables. Unlike common cartoons, those of Eloyan depict absurd narratives, which thereby add solemnity and a realistic quality to the classic animated characters.
Born in Armenia in 1966, Armen Eloyan lives and works in Zurich. As a child, he was immersed in films from all over the world. At the age of 17, Eloyan joined the studio of esteemed Armenian animator Robert Sahakian and worked on coloring and graphic elements. Running into the works of Philip Guston in his 20s, Eloyan was deeply influenced by this great American artist. In 1991, Eloyan left Armenia for the Netherlands and studied at a residency of the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam until his graduation in 2005. Moved by the Chinese calligraphy and poetry during his study, he came to China in 2004.
Armen Eloyan’s work spans figurative and abstract painting, moving freely from sarcasm of the earlier and the impact of abstract expressionism and action painting on the latter, thanks to his in-depth study of de Kooning, Guston and other post-war American artists.
His work is exhibited internationally with solo exhibitions at institutions such as Centre d'art Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel (2020) and Frac des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou (2018); his work is part of public collections such as M HKA, Antwerp, Frac des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou, and Collection AMC, Amsterdam among others.
