Atamian Hovsepian Curatorial Practice (AHCP), the New York Armenian Students Association (NYASA) and the Johannissyan Institute (JI) are pleased to announce the selection of Meri Karapetyan as the first AHCP artist-in-residence for the 2023 Artist Residency Program that will take place in New York City and Yerevan (May 1-July 12, 2023). 

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Over 40 emerging and established artists applied for the residency. The selection committee made their decision based on the conceptual and formal quality of the work presented, the artist’s potential for growth and the consistency of their artistic vision with the mission of AHCP and JI.

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AHCP will provide Karapetyan with roundtrip airfare, housing, art supplies, food, and transportation for the entire duration of the residency program.

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Please donate to support this unprecedented opportunity for Armenian artists.

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The residency consists of an extensive artistic program in New York City. It will give Karapetyan the opportunity to experience the local art scene and build professional networks in the field. Upon returning to Armenia, Meri will complete her residency by spending six weeks at the Johannissyan Institute, conducting research and creating the final artwork. 

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Meri Karapetyan is a graduate of Yerevan State Academy of Fine Arts and is currently pursuing her MFA at the University of Sorbonne in Paris. Her current series Recollected Borders problematizes the notion of the border itself. Karapetyan “conjugates” the border as if it were a verb, examining it from a wide variety of angles, ranging from the physical to the psychological and metaphysical. She thus deconstructs the notion of borders–from borders that we experience in almost every aspect of our daily lives to the ones between states and nations: “What else, if not the artwork itself, is meant to deconstruct the notion of the border? Isn’t art the only way to “disarm” that notion…(and) eventually take up the primary role of the border defining the undefinable.” As she mentions in her artist’s statement in a nod to Richard Serra, her artwork “speaks the languages of space.”

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Karapetyan’s brilliant appropriation of barbed wire in Blooming Barbed Wire–wherein delicate black flowers take the place of the barbs themselves–are also a nod to her native Armenia’s troubled geopolitical situation.