Sonia Balassanian

Sonia Balassanian (Persian: سونیا بالاسانیان, Armenian: Սոնյա Պալասանյան; born 1942) née Sonia Amirian, is an Iranian-born painter, sculptor, and curator, of Armenian ethnicity.[1] She co-founded the Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art.[2][3] Balassanian lives in New York City and Yerevan.[3]

Sonia Balassanian
سونیا بالاسانیان
Սոնյա Պալասանյան
Born
Sonia Amirian

1942 (age 80–81)
Arak, Pahlavi Iran[1]
Other namesSonia Amirian Balassanian,
Sonia Balasanian-Amirian,
Sonia Palasanean,
Sonia Amirean
Alma materPennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,
Pratt Institute
Occupation(s)Artist, curator
Known forPainting
SpouseEdward Balassanian

Biography

Sonia Balassanian was born in 1942 in Arak, Pahlavi Iran.[1][4] In 1966, she emigrated to the United States.[5] Balassanian attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she received a BA degree (1970); and Pratt Institute, where she received a MFA degree (1978).[1]

In her early career she worked in installation art with sculptural elements,[4] and later she worked in video art. She also worked on theater set design in New York City.[6][7] In 1983, she was in the group exhibition, "Seven Women–Image Impact" at MoMA PS1, other artists included in the exhibition were Ana Mendieta, Anne Pitrone, Judy Rifka, Dena Shottenkirk, Susan Rothenberg, and Mimi Smith.[8][9][10]

In 1992, she and her husband Edward Balassanian co-founded the Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art (Armenian: Նորարար Փորձառական Արվեստի Կենտրոն, romanized: Norar Pordzarakan Arvesti Kentovon).[2][11] The center got its start with two seminal exhibitions, "The Show of the Nine" or "9" (1992), and "Identification" (1993).[11][12]

Her work is found in the museum collection at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. She has artist files at the Smithsonian American Art and Portrait Gallery Library.[13]

See also

References
  1. "بالاسانیان: هیچ هنری نیست که تا حدی انتزاعی نباشد / نقاش مقیم آمریکا مى‌گوید هیچگاه جلای وطن نکرده" [Balasanian: There is no art that is not abstract to some extent / the painter living in America says that he has never left his homeland]. honaronline.ir (in Persian). 2015-12-02. Archived from the original on 2015-12-02. Retrieved 2022-12-21.
  2. Zach, Elizabeth (2013-10-16). "A Mainstream Home for Alternative Art in Armenia". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-12-19.
  3. Kassabian, Anahid (March 2013). Ubiquitous Listening: Affect, Attention, and Distributed Subjectivity. University of California Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-520-27515-7.
  4. Keshmirshekan, Hamid; Irving, Mark; Downey, Anthony (2009). Different Sames: New Perspectives in Contemporary Iranian Art. Thames & Hudson. p. 103. ISBN 978-0-500-97697-5.
  5. McCabe, Cynthia Jaffee; Tuan, Yi-fu; Kessner, Thomas (1985). The American Experience: Contemporary Immigrant Artists. Independent Curators Incorporated. p. 93. ISBN 978-0-916365-16-5.
  6. Willis, John (2000-02-01). Theatre World 1990-1991. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 76. ISBN 978-1-55783-126-2.
  7. The New York Times Theater Reviews. New York Times & Arno Press. 1991. p. 104. ISBN 978-0-8153-0643-6.
  8. LAB. 07: arte, deshonra y violencia en el contexto iberoamericano (in Spanish). Centro Cultural de España (Montevideo, Uruguay). Centro Cultural de España. 2007.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  9. Disinformation: The Manufacture of Consent, March 2-March 30, 1985. Alternative Museum (New York, N.Y.). Alternative Museum. 1984. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-932075-01-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  10. Sirmans, Franklin (2008). NeoHooDoo: Art for a Forgotten Faith. Menil Collection. p. 138. ISBN 978-0-300-13418-6.
  11. Voss, Julia; Söntgen, Beate (2022-04-20). Why Art Criticism? A Reader. Hatje Cantz Verlag. p. 328. ISBN 978-3-7757-5093-6.
  12. Harutyunyan, Angela (2017-03-17). The political aesthetics of the Armenian avant-garde: The journey of the 'painterly real', 1987–2004. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-1-5261-1439-6.
  13. "Palasanean, Sonia 1942-". Art & Artists Files in the Smithsonian Libraries' Collections. Retrieved 2022-12-21.
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