Karen Ohanyan: Delicate Matter

The National Gallery of Armenia, in collaboration with Atamian Hovsepian Curatorial Practice (AHCP), presents Delicate Matter, an exhibition of recent works by Karen Ohanyan, curated by Tamar Hovsepian. The exhibition is organized within the framework of Prospectations, the National Gallery of Armenia's programme highlighting contemporary Armenian art. The works are co-commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation and Atamian Hovsepian Curatorial Practice. Following their presentation in Armenia, the works will be exhibited as part of Sharjah Biennial 17: What Remains, sits restive, on view in Sharjah, UAE, from January 21 to June 17, 2027.​

Delicate Matter unfolds through the multiple meanings of the word matter. It refers to the delicate matters we often avoid naming—questions of power, masculinity, violence, and vulnerability—and to matter as substance, the material from which bodies, paintings, memories, and systems of power are formed. The work proposes that what seems solid or enduring often rests upon profound delicacy. Rather than presenting vulnerability as the opposite of strength, these works suggest that fragility may be the very condition from which resilience and human connection take shape.

​The exhibition centres on two large-scale triptychs, each panel measuring 202 × 273 cm. Created through a distinctive process that layers oil, acrylic, adhesive, pigments, and wax from Armenian church candles onto canvas, one triptych is covered with a layer of red pepper powder, while the other is veiled in blue pigment. The triptych format itself recalls the visual language of altarpieces, introducing a spiritual register that is further enriched through the artist's choice of materials and chromatic relationships. Ohanyan's characteristic blue—an enduring presence throughout his artistic practice—together with red adds another symbolic layer, while the yellow of Armenian church candles completes the three primary colours, from which every other hue emerges. Together, they present art as a generative force from which new ways of seeing, imagining, and understanding the world arise. Across each surface, the monochromatic field is interrupted by an abstract opening that exposes an underlying figurative composition in stark contrast to the monochrome veil above. Combining gestural abstraction with figurative painting, this concealed layer—covered with molten wax—introduces an additional visual and conceptual dimension to the work. Beneath the fragile veil of pigment and translucent wax lie fully realised figurative compositions deliberately withheld from view. 

Unlike the other canvases, where only fragments of figures, symbols, letters, and numbers can be discerned beneath the waxed surface, the final panel of the blue triptych reveals the full portrait of a woman. Emerging through the translucent layer of wax, she meets the viewer with a calm yet penetrating gaze, reversing the relationship between observer and observed. Seated with a notebook resting on her knees, she appears as a scribe—a keeper of memory and transmitter of knowledge—and as a symbolic figure of motherhood, homeland, and the continual renewal of life across generations. 

These works may be understood as meditations on endurance and transformation. They acknowledge experiences of pain, violence, and loss while resisting spectacle. Rather than exposing the images of violence, Ohanyan employs concealment as a painterly strategy, exploring the capacity of the painted surface to reveal and withhold, to protect and confront. In doing so, he transforms painting itself into a site of inquiry—one that reflects on how images shape memory and preserve what cannot always be fully revealed.