As a prelude to spring, Gallery Gevik is pleased to present the rejuvenating bursts of colour seen in our first solo exhibition of Montreal artist Garen Bedrossian’s deeply moving painting and sculptural work. 

Images from Nature opens Saturday, March 22, 2025 at 2:30 pm when the artist will give a talk about the exhibition and his approach to art-making.

Born in Armenia in 1952, Bedrossian received his artistic training at the Fine Arts Institute of Saint Petersburg, before immigrating to Montreal in 1987.  The artist’s poetic abstract paintings explore the relationship between nature and mankind on many levels: biological, philosophical, cosmic, and metaphysical. Humanity has always played a central role in Garen’s work though he does not perceive man and nature separately or in a vacuum; on the contrary, this relationship is in constant discourse throughout all the works in this exhibition. 

Presented in a sensitive painterly way, Garen’s paintings offer a vision of hope and speak eloquently to deep human feelings towards the world at large, anchored by semi-abstracted images of the sun, a field of grass or a forest of trees.  Endowed with sensuous colour, subtle drawing and inviting composition, the works invite us to think about the natural world and our role as custodians to its beauty and power.

Bedrossian’s Inside the Beehive series, for example, investigates the unique relationship between humans and honeybees.  These vibrantly painted canvases are derived from an initial series of small works on canvas that were placed inside a beehive for varying lengths of time.  Gradually the bees covered them with their own waxwork patterns which complement and sometimes obliterate the artist’s original brushwork.  This series of stunning abstractions remind us that collaboration with, and respect for nature is key to human survival.

Garen’s sculptural work deftly explores the tension and harmony found in our relationship with the natural world.  Two striking bronzes of a human arm hint at eternal life lessons:  House in Hand underlies the importance of having a home of one’s own while Bird in Hand evokes the time-honoured principle wherein it is better to value what you have then to always be chasing the unattainable.  In Pieces from Constructed Nature, the artist uses onyx stone to create large-scale variations on the honeycomb, while in Golden Bird, the artist uses the lightest of touches to evoke the precariousness and beauty of a bird resting comfortably on a single branch.

Garen Bedrossian’s work has been exhibited widely throughout Canada, the United States, Europe, Japan, and Armenia and can be found in the collections of the Modern Art Museum of Yerevan, Armenia, National Library of Canada, Ottawa, National Library and Archives of Quebec, Montreal, and the National Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan, among many others.