Born in 1948 in Yerevan, Soviet Armenia and resides in Los Angeles, California. At the age of 15 entered the Art Academy of Erevan. As an outstanding student he exhibited his sculptures in the museums of contemporary art in Yerevan and Moscow. At the age of 19 he made a life-daring escape by swimming across the Arax river in freezing Winter, amid machine-gun bullets and border guard dogs, and made his way to America.
In 1969 he arrived in San Francisco where he met and became an assistant to the sculptor Benjamino Bufano, friend of Brancusi, who was making large scale commissions for public spaces. He was greatly influenced by Bufano’s productivity and under his influence developed a keen sense for scale, color and the discipline of work. In 1974 he moved to New York City, became friends with Richard Serra and assisted him in producing many of the huge black oil-stick wall drawings. The first of these was named after “Zadikian” Both the physical and cultural life of New York had a profound effect on him.
Amid the diversity and “poverty” of possibilities (with his contempt for chaos, decay and “angst”) heroically he strove to establish a unique identity of his own. In 1976 he covered his entire home and studio, 10,000 square feet of walls, floor and ceiling with industrial gold, by pounding and gilding so as to uniformly transform it into a singularly radiant vision. A predilection for the magic and majesty of gold leaf led to the 1978 project of “1000 Bricks Gilded in 24 Karat Gold Leaf.”
In his relentless push towards distilling the essence of form and surface, his next iteration
was to create unique unit/brick like structures and gild them. Gold having become his unifying material, like an alchemist he transmuted everything into this Noble metal - from ancient stone reliefs to alien like figures. These auric works recreated worlds beyond the realm of everyday thought, bordering on the threshold of the Timeless and the Eternal.
His concerns with art dive into nature’s most fundamental structures. Units of everlasting elegance on which higher forms are born, always paradoxically mixing the extravagant with the simplest of form.
-Tony Shafrazi
Education
1974-75 - Assisted Richard Serra in creation of “Black” drawings, New York
1970 - Art Academy of Rome
1970-71 - Assistant to Benjamin Bufano, San Francisco
1969-70 - Art Academy of Rome, Italy
1965-66 - Istanbul Art Academy, Turkey
1960-65 - Panos Terlemezian Art Academy, Yerevan, Armenia
1950-60 - Children’s Palace Dept. of Sculpture, Yerevan, Armenia
Solo Exhibitions:
2012 - Maloney Fine Art, California
1995 - Janarte Galerie, Pasadena, California
1995 - Vrej Baghoomian Gallery, New York
1988 - Holly Street Gallery, Pasadena, California
1985 - Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, California
1980 - Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York
1979 - Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York
1978 - Tony Shafrazi Gallery, Tehran, Iran
1977 - P.S.1, New York
1976 - 9 Jay Street, New York
1974 - 112 Greene Gallery, New York
1973 - 112 Greene Gallery, New York
1972 - Ankrum Gallery, Los Angeles
1970 - Gallery La Casapanca, Rome, Italy
Group Exhibitions:
2014 - The Loft at Liz's, California
2014 - Melissa Morgan Fine Art, California
2013 - The Loft at Liz's, California
2012 - Maloney Fine Art, California
2011 - Art Dubai, Etemad Gallery, Dubai
2008 - Tom Otterness Studio, New York
1996 - Janarte Galerie, Pasadena, California
1995 - Vrej Baghoomian Gallery, New York
1992 - Presunic Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Israel
1992 - Presunic Gallery, Paris, France
1991 - Presunic Gallery, New York
1987 - Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York
1986 - Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York
1984 - Vine St. Studios, Los Angeles
1984 - Creative Studies Gallery, University of California, Santa Barbara
1983 - Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York
1974 - James Yu Gallery, New York
1967 - Galerie Margaux, Beirut, Lebanon
1966 - Istanbul Art Academy, Turkey
1964 - Modern Art Museum, Yerevan
1964 - Modern Art Museum, Moscow
1976 - P.S.1, New York
1975 - P.S.1, New York
1987 - The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, New York
Grants:
2001 - LA Council for the Arts, “Caravan” project
2000 - AGBU, “Caravan” project
2000 - Kune Foundation, “Caravan” project
1999 - ARPA Foundation for Film, Music and Art, “Caravan” project
1975 - C.A.P.S. “Gilded Studio”, New York
Public Installations:
1974 - Robert Rauschenberg, studio space grant
http://www.zadikzadikian.com/