Zarouhie Abdalian

Zarouhie Abdalian was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana; and is of Armenian descent.[1][2] Abdalian obtained a Bachelor of Arts from Tulane University in 2003, and graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from the California College of the Arts in 2010.[1][3]

Abdalian is particularly attentive to the ways in which historical processes are embedded in physical transformations of spaces.[2] She is a 2012 recipient of the SECA Art Award.[4] She was also a 2017–2018 Pollock-Krasner Foundation grantee.[5] In 2020, she was awarded a Joan Mitchell Foundation grant.[6]

Abdalian's first solo exhibition in New York, at Clifton Benevento, presented a constellation of subtly altered found objects that echo the features of the gallery and of each other.

Abdalian produces site-specific sculptural works and interventions. Prior to focusing on her site-specific work, Abdalian worked in printmaking and painting. She became more interested in working directly with the elements of space after a 2004 exhibition in a non-traditional venue.[7] Her works respond directly to architectural and outdoor spaces, using sound, light, and other natural forces to create subtle experiences that are open to multiple interpretations.[8]

She had a 2013 show called "Zarouhie Abdalian / MATRIX 249" at the Berkeley Art Museum, with sculptures that are sensitive to the exhibition space. The sculptures were set up to use the out-of-the-way location of the gallery and aspects of the walls and space as part of the effect of the art.[9] In 2013 she also installed a sound sculpture, "Occasional Music", in Frank H. Ogawa Plaza in Oakland, with brass bells that occasionally ring together out of sight.[10][11]

Her work has been included in the following group exhibitions:

• "Put It This Way: (Re)Visions of the Hirshhorn Collection", Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, 2023[12]
• Whitney Biennial, New York, 2017
• Prospect.3, New Orleans, 2014–15
• "Audible Spaces," David Winton Bell Gallery, Providence, RI, 2014
• Eighth Berlin Biennale, Berlin, Germany, 2014
• "Nothing Beside Remains," Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, Australia, 2014
• CAFAM Biennale, Beijing, China, 2014
• "Shanghai Bienniale: Reactivation," Shanghai, China, 2012
• "When Attitudes Became Form Become Attitudes," CCA's Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, San Francisco; and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, 2012–2013
• Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Moscow, Russia, 2012
• "Rendez-vous 12," South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa, 2012
• The Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey, 2011

She has had solo exhibitions of her work at the following venues:

• "Bells for Baku, London, Louisiana", Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, 2023[13]
• "Chanson du ricochet", MASS MoCA, 2016–2021[14]
• "Zarouhie Abdalian: A History," Altman Siegel, San Francisco, 2017[15]
• "Work," LAXART, Los Angeles, 2017[16]
• "A Betrayal," Clifton Benevento, New York, 2016[17]
• "An Overture," Altman Siegel, San Francisco, 2014[18]
• "Zarouhie Abdalian / MATRIX 249," Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2013[19]