Gegam Kacherian at Tufenkian Fine Arts - Art and Cake

Constance Mallinson, Art and Cake, October 26, 2018

In Refractions spatial congruities are endlessly subverted, perspectives defy fixed points and recognizable forms split only to rematerialize elsewhere. Exquisite painted “doodles” are applied, gyrating and dancing across the surface, or in some cases, augmenting the figurative elements or enlivening broad expanses of rich jewel-like color. Exotic flora and fauna, bisected fragments of architecture, human nudes/portraits and atmospheric effects play hide and seek in these wildly polychromed, often glittery, spaces. Painted areas can be difficult to differentiate from reproductions. Abstraction becomes figuration and figuration dissolves into prismatic painted puddles. Refracting stained glass windows, kaleidoscopes, Cubist painting, Op Art, Kandinsky’s early abstractions, the Abstract Surrealists like Gorky and Matta, all come to mind. History, referenced from sources as varied as Armenian manuscripts and ancient artforms, collides and interacts with the products and potentialities of computer technology and contemporary images. The effects are mesmerizing, especially when, in catching a fleeting glimpse of oneself in the reflective Mylar, one realizes he/she is part of this fluctuating vision.