Glendale News Press
Published March 16, 2005

Turning trash into treasure

By Joyce Rudolph, News-Press and Leader

The old adage, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, is taken to
another dimension by Glendale artist Raffi Adalyan, who transforms discarded
items into works of art to last a lifetime.
The 64-year-old incorporates used objects, such as broken violins and old
shoes, into his three-dimensional paintings, he explained, his daughter Yeva
Adalyan translating.

“He gets attached to things,” his daughter said. “While other people put old
violins in the trash, he makes them live forever.”
Raffi Adalyan’s work, on display this week at the Harvest Gallery in
Glendale, is an updated version of a series he started in the early 1960s
while in Armenia.
But those had no color, he said.
“When I came to the United States in 1992, the style of the 1960s came back
to me, but in a completely different mood — with color,” he said.
His work was limited in 1960s, he said, because Armenia was under Soviet
government, which had strict rules about art expression. He had to hide a
lot of his work.
In one work, he has painted over used shoes, in adult and children’s sizes,
so you can’t see them very well. It depicts the massacres of innocent people
around the world because of their political or religious beliefs, he said.
“It’s my way of rebelling against it,” he said.
Raffi Adalyan is thrilled that Harvest Gallery owner Aris Ajand asked him to
show his unique work.
“What we like to do is to show new artists or show artists’ work in
different settings,” Ajand said.
Most of the paintings being shown have violins incorporated into the design,
but each says something different to the viewer, he said.
“When next to each other, the consumer sees the differences,” he said. “And
it’s interesting to see how the people choose their favorite one or two.”
The Armenian-born artist is also a violinist, thus the liberal use of the
instrument in his work. He graduated from Yerevan’s Music Conservatory in
1966, and played with the Yerevan Philharmonic Orchestra for 20 years.
After rehearsals, he would go to the studio and paint. He received no formal
training in this art but learned the basic techniques when he was 13 from
his brother, Ruben Adalyan, an accomplished painter.
“Ruben is my worst and best critic,” he said.
In 1976, his first solo exhibit of 60 paintings was at the Contemporary Art
Gallery of Yerevan. He has also shown at the Leon Ragain Gallery in France
and galleries around the world.
He came to the United States in 1992 with his wife, Nora, who he met at the
conservatory. She is a viola player. Their son, Martiros Adalian is also a
painter.
Raffi Adalyan is preparing for his 65th birthday celebration exhibition in
October in ArmeniaThe works, measuring at least 10 feet wide by 6 feet tall,
are made of multiple layers of canvas that have been torn as a method of
being interactive with viewers.
People can peal back a layer to expose pictures or poetry — and even a no
smoking sign — underneath.
His main goal, he said, is to create some kind of emotion and make them
think.
“Art in the last few decades hasn’t gone anywhere, and that’s a shame
because we need new ideas in art, and there always needs to be a rebel,” he
said.
FYI
WHAT: Raffi Adalyan solo exhibit
WHEN: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. through Sunday
WHERE: Harvest Gallery, 938 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale
INFO: (818) 546-1000