ARTIST EMIL KAZAZ WANTS TO TRANSFORM YEREVAN AND GUMRI

il-kazaz-wants-to-transform-yerevan-and-gumri/
Aug 13th, 2009

YEREVAN -World-renowned Los Angeles-based artist Emil Kazaz has held
meetings with the culture minister and officials in Gumri to discuss
rebuilding an old house in the city and turn into a museum housing
his works, the artist’s wife Mane Hayryan told a press conference
Wednesday.

Kazaz told the officials that his father’s house in Gumri, which was
destroyed during the 1988 earthquake, was the property being eyed
for this project by the artist, who has not been in Armenia since 1986.

Hayryan presented the Gumri municipality two Kazaz paintings. "The
Golden Child of Gumri," which won a prize at the Florence Biennale
and "San Pedro’s Table," which won the coveted Medici prize. Hayryan
also announced the donation of several Kazaz works to the Yerevan
Art Gallery.

"He has decided to get dual citizenship and to make Armenian art
known around the world," added Hayryan.

Kazaz (Manvel Ghazaryan) was born in 1953 in Gumri. He started studying
sculpture when he was 7. He attended the Mercurov art school and
Terlemezyan College of art and the art theater institute. He has been
living in Los Angeles since 1980. He has had exhibitions in Europe,
Asia, Russia, North and South America.

An exhibition of Kazaz’s works will open on Friday in Yerevan,
marking the first time the artist’s works are being shown in Armenia.