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Show at Kittery art gallery honors victims of genocides

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  • Show at Kittery art gallery honors victims of genocides

    Portland Press Herald (Maine)
    April 26, 2006 Wednesday
    York Edition

    Show at Kittery art gallery honors victims of genocides;
    The four featured artists are survivors or descendants of the Jewish
    Holocaust and Armenian Genocide.

    by DEBORAH SAYER News Assistant


    They were two distinct people groups who experienced similar,
    unimaginable atrocities: the near annihilation of their kin.
    Survivors and descendents of the Armenian Genocide (1915-23) and the
    Jewish Holocaust (1933-45) have come together to pay tribute to the
    memory of their lost loved ones with a group exhibit, "Art of
    Remembrance."

    The exhibit, part purging and part healing, is on display through May
    20 at Haley Farm Gallery in Kittery. It features the works of
    painters Ross Saryan, Sandra Jeknavorian and Samuel Bak and
    photographer Hakob Hovhannisyan.

    Gallery owner Jackie Abramian said that artworks represented in the
    exhibit include oil, watercolor and mixed media paintings, as well as
    photographs of the Armenian countryside. All are available for
    purchase.

    The gallery offered similar subject matter during last year's
    exhibits, though this display features the works of a younger
    generation of artists, who are descendants of genocide survivors.
    Bak, 73, is a Holocaust survivor.

    Painter Ross Saryan, 23, of Armenia is the great-grandson of the late
    Armenian national artist Martiros Saryan, who set the standard for
    Armenian art and culture in his day. A museum in that country has
    been built as a tribute to his legacy.

    The younger Saryan has established himself as a painter of oil and
    watercolor works that link the past while providing a glimpse of the
    future of Armenian contemporary art. His paintings feature prominent
    Armenian symbols and designs in geometric abstraction.

    "He has his own style, using vibrant colors that his
    great-grandfather used," said Abramian. "He dabbles in different
    styles and formats."

    Bak has an extensive body of work. For the past six decades he's used
    mixed medium to depict scenes of destruction and brokenness based on
    his childhood experiences in the Holocaust.

    Examples of his work include paintings of a broken tea service on a
    table; images Abramian said serve to capture the reality that normal
    Jewish life was abruptly interrupted with horrifying effect. The
    theme behind much of Bak's artwork lies in the Hebrew word "tikkun,"
    meaning to have been destroyed or left incomplete. The group of
    paintings are from Pucker Gallery of Boston.

    Abramian said that this group of artists "work with their heart, mind
    and hands to capture something others can not, citing Bak as an
    example.

    "(The are) is so much part of his life," said Abramian. "He works
    daily and exhibits works worldwide. It's his mission to let people
    know what happened."


    GRAPHIC: Photo courtesy Haley Farm Gallery
    Haley Farm Gallery owners Jackie Abramian, far left, and Harout
    DerSimonian, far right, pose with artist Samuel Bak, second from
    right, and his wife, Josee Bak. Examples of Bak's work are displayed
    in the background. Bak, 73, is a Holocaust survivor whose work
    depicts scenes from childhood memories of brokenness.
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