Armen Kojoyian is an American artist, born in 1953 in Washington, DC. From his early years growing up in New England, Armen has always been dedicated to producing art and design.  As a teenager, he learned to paint from Paul Rahilly at the historic Fenway Studios of Boston. His studies as a BFA painting major at University of Rhode Island were informed by the sculptural and biomorphic forms in the work of professors Susan Heideman and Richard Calabro.

Armen redirected his professional career towards graphic design and illustration in the MFA of Design program at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, where he studied under Hans Van Dyck. Armen thrived in the publishing field as Designer/Art Director at McGraw Hill Companies, Simon and Schuster and several other publishing firms where he garnered several industry awards for his graphic design and illustration work.

Armen renewed his dialogue of the image-making process in classes at the Art Students League of New York with the late George Cannata and Larry Poons.  Armen’s work subsequently surged in a expression of organic abstraction.

Armen’s artworks create the possibility of recognizable forms in a instant, yet these forms can vanish into deformity in the next glance. The visual mystery Armen creates from new organisms in a fluid symbolism are deconstructed of apparent meaning revealing a new living environment of natural forms intertwined in conflict and synergy.

Armen gains inspiration from these past masters such as William Baziotes, Richard Pousette-Dart, Arshile Gorky, Wifredo Lam, Roberto Matta, Richard Merkin, Elizabeth Murray, Rufino Tamayo, Martiros Saryan.

 

Exhibitions

2015 – “Art in Fall” 2015 at the Hovnanian School, New Milford, NJ

2015 – Artexpo 2015 at Pier 94 NYC

2009 – Gallery 77, New York City “Ambient Relics” paintings (one-man show)

2008 – Gallery 77, New York City “Garden of Morphic Resonance” works on paper (one-man show)

2004 – AIGA sponsored San Diego Society of Illustrators, private artworks group show

2004 – ArtWalk San Diego, Joseph David Gallery, San Diego, CA (group show)

2002 – Maryland Art Place,”Out of Order” (group show) Baltimore, MD

2002 – Tatiana LTD Gallery, Glenelg, MD (one-man show)

1996 – Firedworks Gallery, Alamosa, CO (group show)

1985 – Mussavi Art Gallery, NY,NY (group show)

 

Awards

1996 – Award of Merit, Manhattan Arts International Fifth Annual competition

Commissions

1990 – Prototype Design, Providence, RI

1989 – Instrumentation Laboratories (An Allied Company), Lexington, MA

1980 – Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Boston, MA

Guest Speaker

1996 – Pratt Institute or Art, Brooklyn, NY

1988,1992 – Parsons School of Design, New York, NY

Instructor

1983 – Butera School of Art, Boston, MA

 

Education

1977 – University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA

Master of Fine Arts

1975 – University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI

Bachelor of FIne Arts