Atamian Hovsepian Curatorial Practice
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Artists

William Theodoracopulos

Mother Ruzzia — Mother Ruzzia shows how painting, when it tries to capture reality, can create power imbalances—especially in Russian realism, which often served the dominant political order. Yet paint itself is fluid and can unsettle these structures instead of reinforcing them. The work asks whether painting should continue propping up representational power or tap into a raw, shifting ground that dissolves fixed identities. In this way, Mother Ruzzia straddles two forces—one that shapes and controls, and another that lets paint shatter representation and bring something new into being. 1.5 x 1.5 metres
Mother Ruzzia — Mother Ruzzia shows how painting, when it tries to capture reality, can create power imbalances—especially in Russian realism, which often served the dominant political order. Yet paint itself is fluid and can unsettle these structures instead of reinforcing them. The work asks whether painting should continue propping up representational power or tap into a raw, shifting ground that dissolves fixed identities. In this way, Mother Ruzzia straddles two forces—one that shapes and controls, and another that lets paint shatter representation and bring something new into being. 1.5 x 1.5 metres

William Theodoracopulos

A native New Yorker, William Theodoracopulos trained at the Art Students League before moving to Europe to paint full-time. He’s particularly interested in how the mind and perception shape visual art. His current work centers on the indeterminate ground or negative space in painting, which shapes the figure yet remains free of it.

Repin People — Repin People refers to Clement Greenberg’s Avant-Garde and Kitsch, the seminal essay that signaled America’s shift away from Europe’s representational tradition toward abstraction. Repin’s portrait of Czar Nicholas points to realism’s imperial roots, while the painting’s ground dismantles any single interpretation. By linking Russian realism’s transition into Soviet realism with contemporary conflicts of war and colonialism, the painting underscores Greenberg’s critique of propaganda in art. 1.5 x 1.5 metres
Repin People — Repin People refers to Clement Greenberg’s Avant-Garde and Kitsch, the seminal essay that signaled America’s shift away from Europe’s representational tradition toward abstraction. Repin’s portrait of Czar Nicholas points to realism’s imperial roots, while the painting’s ground dismantles any single interpretation. By linking Russian realism’s transition into Soviet realism with contemporary conflicts of war and colonialism, the painting underscores Greenberg’s critique of propaganda in art. 1.5 x 1.5 metres
Water Lilies of War — Water Lilies of War references Monet but trades the serenity of water lilies for a dynamic ground that engulfs the figure in waves of color and light. This isn’t about erasure or death; instead, the figure’s absorption into the fluid background suggests a transformation—one that unravels rigid boundaries and allows something new to emerge. The ground becomes an active field, alive with possibility, rather than a place of finality. 1.5 x 1.5 metres
Water Lilies of War — Water Lilies of War references Monet but trades the serenity of water lilies for a dynamic ground that engulfs the figure in waves of color and light. This isn’t about erasure or death; instead, the figure’s absorption into the fluid background suggests a transformation—one that unravels rigid boundaries and allows something new to emerge. The ground becomes an active field, alive with possibility, rather than a place of finality. 1.5 x 1.5 metres
Deform#1 — Deform#1 shows a painting in which the ground actively reshapes the figure, dissolving it into unpredictable forces. Death and transformation overlap in an undefined space that spans both beginnings and endings. Rather than repeating a fixed model, the ground serves as the source of form, generating what emerges and disappears boundaries and allows something new to emerge. The ground becomes an active field, alive with possibility, rather than a place of finality. 1.5 x 1.5 metres
Deform#1 — Deform#1 shows a painting in which the ground actively reshapes the figure, dissolving it into unpredictable forces. Death and transformation overlap in an undefined space that spans both beginnings and endings. Rather than repeating a fixed model, the ground serves as the source of form, generating what emerges and disappears boundaries and allows something new to emerge. The ground becomes an active field, alive with possibility, rather than a place of finality. 1.5 x 1.5 metres
1.5 x1.5 metres
1.5 x1.5 metres