Karo Alexanian

Born during the Soviet era, Karo Alexanian initially drew his inspiration from Slavic and Eastern European culture. He lived in the Russian capital for 17 years and deepened his art there by drawing on the riches contained in museums from Moscow to St. Petersburg.

But in search of new horizons and new cultures, he settled in Quebec, an intermediary place between Europe and North America. There he benefited from the freedom of expression that he was deprived of in the Soviet Union, to develop and disseminate his art.

He has joined various Canadian galleries and has been exhibiting his work there for more than 20 years. Eager for more cultural and artistic discoveries, he moved to the South of France, where he has been living and working for almost 5 years.

Because Karo Alexanian believes in the power of painting and its necessity to carry our cultural baggage, he paints based on observation, the study of the environment, the integration of the culture in which he is immersed. He assiduously frequents museums and artistic and cultural centres to return to transpose during his studio work what seems to him to be the primitive essence of the human being: the sacredness of life. In this sense, he practises a metaphysical art.

Karo Alexanian has always tried to reproduce what he sees and observes using a variety of lines, colours and textures. When he observes a particular subject, he tries to generalize the forms, to liberate the essential and to transform it into signs. Karo Alexanian wants to conjugate this sign, make a link with his conventional designation in order to create a new visual and intellectual unity.

Karo Alexanian also tries to highlight the great link between primitive art and contemporary art nouveau. He tries to find in his work a spiritual aspect that he finds absent from the artistic expression of our time by creating works in a contemporary and universal dimension where he renews the use of acrylic and where he gives back its letters of nobility to the handmade work. In order to achieve true art, an artist must sacrifice himself and lead a life of deep observation with the ultimate goal of delivering to humanity his feeling for nature and his knowledge of human essence.