Some artists leave without a trace.
Some artists meticulously trace their source material.
Some cultures vanish without a trace.
Some people trace their past to preserve it.
Perhaps they trace the path they made last night to find something they lost or maybe they trace their roots or look back for a trace of some lost history or perhaps, bravely seek a trace of a path forward beyond trauma, into a new life.
At Stepan Partamian’s new cultural center ARMENIAN ARTS, the painter Rouzanna Berberian is featured in a fantastic solo show to open the gallery. Entitled TRACE this exhibit is a collection of her recent hard-edge geometric abstract paintings. The work investigates the notion of following a path, be it in the labyrinthine pathways of electronic circuitboards or the generational histories hidden in the plain site of woven patterns in Armenian rugs and tapestries.
The artist composes wild paintings based on her observations of the visual sequences in advanced and primitive technologies. The edges of her painted lines approach the sharpness of Ellsworth Kelly and her color choices make one wonder what would have been if Helen Frankenthaler had possessed the compositional rigor of Frank Stella.
There is a power of laying garish opposites next to each other to produce a potent optic that some artists can imagine, fewer can handle and perhaps only Berberian herself can use as if she is just playing in the studio. Where most artists under the large umbrella term of geometric abstract painting might make stiff presentations of the formal properties of art for its own sake, Berberian delivers rhythmic configurations, lanky and purposefully lopsided pseudo-figures and pays homage to the coded references with which Armenian women adorned their legendary floorcloths with paintings that appear half hieroglyphic, half Modernist meditation.
Partamian, a controversial figure in the local Armenian community, has opened his cultural space as a place for the members of the Armenian diaspora to embrace what they as a people have done to further humanity. Rather than engage in the trauma grift of the past, Partamian pushes a philosophy of “GenoLIVE” as a strategy to conceptually defeat the very real genocide his race suffered just over a century ago. Artists like Berberian embody the spirit of Partamian’s philosophy that the diaspora is better served looking forward with strength and dignity than bemoaning an unchangeable tragic past.
TRACE highlighted the possibilities of Partamian’s new space, filling each wall with uncompromisingly composed pictures that play with trace elements of high Modernism, the laborious craftsmanship of weaving and the infinite roadmap of information-age circuitry.
The Center For Armenian Arts is located at 250 North Orange Street, Glendale, CA 91203. All photos here courtesy of the gallery and Mr. Partamian.