“Painter, sculptor, writer, musician, and for all we know dancer and magician, Vahe Berberian practices his multiple talents with respectful gravity and, at the same time, expressive abandon. Thus his paintings, which have been labeled “minimalist” because of their spare compositions and atmospheric voids, are filled, near to the brim, with gestures, notations, veritable diaries of thought and motion. Vahe invites us to decrypt his myriad markings, but the markings themselves defy translation: you either know right away what they say to you – and perhaps to no one else – or you puzzle eternally over their literal significance. Their formal significance, however, keeps you engaged, and you find interpretation, only to lose it again, then find another, then lose it, in a never-ending drift of meaning that very likely mimics the process by which Vahe reasoned these images into being to begin with. That’s why he paints – not only to say the things he needs to say, but to watch them float, expand, and metamorphose like clouds into things he never thought of saying. Our impulse is to call these paintings “hermetic,” closed in sense to all but their maker; but in fact we as much as Vahe are the determinants of their meaning. They are messages Vahe puts in bottles and sets on a psychic sea; they are saturated with the spirit’s brine.”
WHAT: The Armenian Community Center of Laval Presents ‘Baron Garbis,’ an original play in Armenian, written and directed by Vahe Berberian
WHEN: Friday, October 10 & Saturday, October 11 at 8:30 pm. Sunday, October 12 at 7pm
WHERE: Vanier College Auditorium. 821 Ste-Croix Ave. Montreal, QC
HOW: For tickets and more information contact Tamar Poladian 514-913-6767 or Hasmig Bilemdjian 450-682-5231
WHAT: Armenian Youth Center of Toronto presents ‘Baron Garbis’
WHEN: Saturday, October 18 at 8pm, and Sunday, October 19 at 7pm
WHERE: 45 Hallcrown Place, Willowdale, Ontario M2J 4Y4
HOW: For tickets and more information contact Liz Balian 416-587-3319 or Karnig Hasserjian 416-500-1694
The first West Coast “Armenians and Progressive Politics” Conference is coming on June 6 and 7, 2008. The conference will be a critical examination of subjects pertinent to Armenians’ political, social, and economic situation within both global and local contexts.
Featuring distinguished speakers from academia, labor unions, community organizing, the arts, and media, this series of five panels breaks new ground. The first panel discussion, Raising Social Consciousness Through Art and Music, should generate particularly lively and humorous presentations followed by public discussion during the plenary session scheduled for Friday night, June 6. This panel of artistic activists— Lalo Alcaraz, Jerry Quickly, and Vahe Berberian— moderated by Assembly Member Paul Krekorian .
WHAT: “Armenians and Progressive Politics” Conference. Vahe Berberian to participate in panel discussion of Raising Social Consciousness Through Art and Music
WHERE: The Glendale Central Library Auditorium. 222 E. Harvard St. Glendale, CA 91205
WHEN: Friday, June 6, 2008 at 7:30 pm
MORE: www.armenianprogressive.com
Vahe’s new solo exhibition “Four Months in Heaven” scheduled to open at the AMBROGI | CASTANIER GALLERY in West Hollywood on Saturday, May 3rd. After his recent theatrical success, with his highly acclaimed play Baron Garbis, Vahe is quite literally going back to the drawing board, spending “Four Months in Heaven,” as he returns his focus to the brush and canvas.
One might compare Vahe’s work to a child’s notebook, filled with incoherent words and images, but all together a unique and intrinsic form of expression. His minimalist abstract paintings are reminiscent of cave drawings, quite raw and honest, whose progeny comes from a rather simple and innocent place. “Four Months in Heaven” employs this idea of revisiting simplicity; that an artist spends time in isolation, in an almost monk-like state of solitude, and the desire to express is manifested through the paint. An artist must take themselves away from the various distractions of the world and allow themselves to exist through the medium. “Painting gives me wings,” says Vahe, as he examines his journey as a painter. To Vahe this experience is simultaneously liberating and centering, taking him to an almost ethereal place.
WHAT: Four Months In Heaven
WHO: Vahe Berberian’s solo exhibition
WHERE: Ambrogi | Castanier Gallery 300 North Robertson Boulevard West Hollywood, CA 90048
WHEN: May 3 - 24, 2008. Opening Reception, May 3, 6-10 pm
Serj Tankian approached various friends in the art world to direct a video for every song on Elect The Dead, his debut solo release. This allowed for each director to showcase their personality, creating a unique approach to each song they were given.
Track 6, The Sky Is Over, directed by Oscar-nominated Puerto Rican playwright and screenwriter Jose Rivera (The Motorcycle Diaries), captures Vahe in the studio painting feverishly, inspired by the song. “For me,” says Berberian, “it was a magnificent collaboration between three artists and friends. I have always used music as a source of inspiration and this time, it was even more so because of the fact that both the musician and the filmmaker were good friends” This unique glimpse into the artist’s methodology and environment is a feast for the eyes.
Vahe’s art has been featured as the CD cover & in the jacket for Serj Tankian’s solo album, Elect the Dead. The works chosen are a mix of assemblages and acrylic on metal pieces. Tankian immediately migrated toward the cover’s assemblage, My Angel, which was hanging in the artist’s hallway. “We spent some time listening to the tracks, trying to see which works fit his music, but when Serj saw the eyes on the Milagros, he knew that’s exactly what he wanted,” says Berberian, “It was the perfect marriage of our two worlds.” The Milagros, -acrylic on metal pieces used in the jacket - are a leap from the artist’s minimalists abstract paintings. The small, colorful, figurative paintings show the artists whimsical side and are part of Berberian’s Milargos series. “The Milagros started as an experiment, but I enjoyed the process so much that I could not stop. As an abstract painter, tapping into the figurative well of my unconscious was quite a revelation,” says Berberian. To see more of Vahe’s works please visit VaheBerberian.com. To find out more about Serj’s new album go to SerjTankian.com.
“Painter, sculptor, writer, musician, and for all we know dancer and magician, Vahe Berberian practices his multiple talents with respectful gravity and, at the same time, expressive abandon. Thus his paintings, which have been labeled “minimalist” because of their spare compositions and atmospheric voids, are filled, near to the brim, with gestures, notations, veritable diaries of thought and motion. Vahe invites us to decrypt his myriad markings, but the markings themselves defy translation: you either know right away what they say to you – and perhaps to no one else – or you puzzle eternally over their literal significance. Their formal significance, however, keeps you engaged, and you find interpretation, only to lose it again, then find another, then lose it, in a never-ending drift of meaning that very likely mimics the process by which Vahe reasoned these images into being to begin with. That’s why he paints – not only to say the things he needs to say, but to watch them float, expand, and metamorphose like clouds into things he never thought of saying. Our impulse is to call these paintings “hermetic,” closed in sense to all but their maker; but in fact we as much as Vahe are the determinants of their meaning. They are messages Vahe puts in bottles and sets on a psychic sea; they are saturated with the spirit’s brine.”
