2006
Realms and Reveries
January 14- July 30, 2006
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), North Adams, MA
Excerpt from press release:
Drawing from an assortment of design motifs, including Persian carpet patterns and early Nintendo game graphics, Aram creates highly stylized landscapes that complicate the conventional definitions of binary terms such as East and West, through spectacular depictions of light, traditional icons, and digital culture.
The exhibition, Realms & Reveries, included Aram's paintings, delicately rendered drawings and a MASS MoCA-commissioned wall drawing, which was located in the Hunter Theater Mezzanine along the second floor corridor. In this age of unprecedented growth and technological change, we encounter a nonstop barrage of cultural signs. A given image may have multiple meanings depending upon the cultural lens through which the viewer interprets it. Aram recycles spiritual symbols and visual traditions common to both the East and West, from media advertisements, to Renaissance painting, to Persian miniatures, and infuses them with new meaning in order to challenge stereotypes and misconceptions.
Set against a painted surface of psychedelic colors, Aram's process of layering various incongruous images into a unified composition recalls the formal practices of 1960s Pop artists like Andy Warhol, which in turn echoes early Cubist collage. Aram likens his process to the making of early video games such as Super Mario Bros. He says, "In [this game], there are a host of characters and graphics that are juxtaposed in various ways to create a variety of scenes. In the paintings, forms and images are recycled."
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