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    Emil Lazarian
  • 3 years ago
    • Categories: 2021

Art: Stockton Art Gallery features exhibition on Armenian Genocide

Sept 14 2021

Vahagn Ghukasyan ‘Sounds of Shadows,’ 2020

GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP – “Before, After: Reflections on the Armenian Genocide” will be on display in the Stockton University Art Gallery through Oct. 17.

Stationed in the upper art gallery, this installation includes artwork by 10 artists: John Avakian, Silvina Der-Meguerditchian, Vahagn Ghukasyan, Diana Markosian, Talin Megherian, Marsha Nouritza Odabashian, Ara Oshagan, Levon Parian, Jessica Sperandio and Mary Zakarian.

A conversation with artists Talin Megherian and Marsha Nouritza Odabashian will be held from 3-5 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 4 in the Art Gallery.

A second virtual talk will be held 3-4:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 14, featuring California artists Ara Oshagan and Levon Parian. Participants can attend the watch party in the art gallery, or via the link that will be posted on the art gallery’s website Stockton.edu/artgallery,

The exhibition and the talks are free and open to the public.

Guest curator is Ryann Casey, an adjunct professor of art at Stockton and a Stockton alumna, said the exhibition traces generations of Armenian resiliency through the common thread of loss and survival.

“The exhibition examines the connections passed down through blood, migration and history; from genocide to diaspora to belonging. ‘Before, After’ integrates artifact with abstraction, witness accounts with recreation, old materials reused and new molds made. The Armenian experience (both past and present, before and after) is showcased through a range of mediums and practices, reflecting the repeating patterns of grief, healing and reflection,” she said.

Stockton University Art Gallery is free and open to the public Monday – Saturday 12-7:30 p.m. and Sunday 12-4 p.m. Masks are required indoors.

Emil Lazarian: “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS