Armen Agop

Armen Agop

Armen Agop, born August 16, 1969, Cairo, is an Egyptian-Armenian contemporary artist known for his meditative approach and contemplative sculptures and paintings.

Quotes

• Simplicity is very complicated.
  • Eltorie, Aida, (2009) Undercurrent, Contemporary Egyptian Art. Art Sawa. Dubai. pg. 32
  • As quoted by Reham El-Adawi. (2020 September 22). 100 Years of Egyptian Sculpture: On Mahmoud Mokhtar, Adam Henein, Armen Agop meeting in Dubai ahramonline

• New is a very old word.
  • As quoted by Rebecca Bell in LKFF Art & Sculpture Projects exhibition catalog, "Armen Agop" (2010) pg.7

• I don't work, I either play or pray.
  • Interview with Aaron Rosen. (winter 2019). In the Studio: Armen Agop Image" Image 103. ISSN 1087-3503
  • As quoted by Dr. Tom Flynn, MANTRA - An Essay by Dr. Tom Flynn, Meem Gallery exhibition catalog, (October 2019) pg.15

• I believe that all art is playing seriously.
  • Interview with Aaron Rosen. (winter 2019). In the Studio: Armen Agop Image" Image 103. ISSN 1087-3503

• The only prison is myself.
  • As quoted by David Clement-Davies. (2021 March 29). Armen Agop: Simplicity is Complex. Financial Times.

• It was in the desert, where there seems to be nothing, that's where I learned to see.
  • Agop, Armen. (2021 December 19). Armen Agop: Contemporary Spiritual Art. The Culturium

• An artwork is a container of a human experience. A poem in a closed book is contained energy, ready for whoever reads it, wanting to be charged. Art is able to energize a part of us that is usually ignored. In my experience, the artworks that touch us deeply and manage to connect with us are artworks that have a rich internal world and vital inner connectivity with themselves. The hard part is the ability to detect it because it’s not about the obvious elements in an artwork; most of the time, it is about what is beneath that which is evident. It’s the unseen, the invisible. I believe that the appearance of the artwork is a big obstacle. We call it visual art but it’s all about the invisible.
  • Agop, Armen. (2021 December 19). Armen Agop: Contemporary Spiritual Art. The Culturium

• In front of every blank canvas or paper, I face nothingness. What breaks it is the desire of doing. With each blank paper, there is a new unknown to explore, a nothingness to go through. By doing it more and more, a hidden part of me is unveiled. After some time, it isn’t about me anymore but about the whole universe. By exploring my nature, I explore the universe’s nature. We are one. Each painting is a cosmic one, even if it’s a failure. When I make a painting, the painting makes me too.
  • Agop, Armen. (2021 December 19). Armen Agop: Contemporary Spiritual Art. The Culturium

Quotes about Armen Agop

• Nevertheless, the answers remain innumerable and the sculptures seem different to the eyes of each beholder. Next to a drop of darkness that widens across the page of life may appear a meteorite radiated by cosmic waves, while the black disk of a pendulum keeps on reminding us of the inexorable flow of time. All this is seen through the fascinating kaleidoscope of Armen's art that projects images on images in an implacable vortex of stimuli. No single analysis is considered definitive because, as it happens for the hermetic poetries, in front of the sculptures of Armen an interpretation is tied intrinsically to the sensibility of the observer.
  • Cipriani, Ilaria, (2005) Armen Agop. Edizioni Monte Altissimo. Pietrasanta. pg. 9.

• Each work may be considered as a contemporary microcosm, unnamed, self-referential, but rich of past and present identity, still tied to previous work but announcing the forthcoming one, which enables the viewer to participate in the discovery of his inner energy, sharing in the identity.
  • An essay by Maurizio Vanni, Double Identity. Flora Bigai Arte Contemporanea exhibition catalog, (June 2012) pg.8.

• These sculptures are not altars but mirrors of the viewer's soul.
  • An essay by Rubén de la Nuez, The Riddles of the Abstract Sphinx. Art Plural exhibition catalog, (January 2015) pg.9.

• Defying the ego, Armen Agop releases his works into the world detaching himself from them. For him, the man, it's all about the process, and for the stone, it's about endurance. Perhaps, his works can be regarded as contemporary conduits for the Ka, rare portals of communication between the incorporeal and the terrestrial realm. Created in time, they are meant to resist time, vibrating within their own frequencies as an undying ode to life.
  • Bambić Kostov, Ana. (September 2018) Contemporary Conduits for the Ka. Sculpture magazine.

External links

Official website