Gayane Yerkanyan’s work often involves decontextualizing Armenian letters to offer new visual and symbolic meanings. In her works, there are no words; the meaning is the letters themselves. As symbols of Armenian cultural heritage, they become visual representations of a culture, combined in abstract plays of form and space.
The artist’s two works in this exhibition have an approach closer to geometric drawing than to the direct and spontaneous sign proper to handwriting. Hers is a mark that is almost devoid of gestures and yet laden with those imprecisions that are characteristic of direct handwork, which does not intend to hide its humanity.

BIOGRAPHY

Gayane Yerkanyan (Yerevan, Armenia, 1989) has been living and working in Amsterdam since 2015. After graduating from the Yerevan Academy of Arts and receiving her master’s degree from the Utrecht School of the Arts in the Netherlands, she worked in graphic design and art. Her work often involves decontextualizing Armenian letters to offer new visual and symbolic meanings. The artist uses the Armenian letter and its variations as a metaphor for the individual trying to define herself both as an individual and as part of society.