Sergey Navasardyan: Laundry

May 05, 2023 – August 06, 2023 In recent years, Sergey Navasardyan (famous for inventing the idea of yerevantropics, which eventually has become also his artistic nickname) has emerged as a prominent figure in Armenia's urban cultural scene. He is known for his unique style and has gained recognition both in Armenia and internationally. In addition to his artistic pursuits, Navasardyan founded the #kondgallery in 2018, which is an open-air street art gallery initiative located in one of Yerevan's oldest districts. The gallery has quickly become an important component of the city's visual cultural landscape.

Sergey Navasardyan's oeuvre feeds on contemporary global pop culture, incorporating a local interpretation of unique visual narratives, codes, and archetypes. In the perspective of postmodernism, his works often combine seemingly disparate elements, such as sneakers, Mount Ararat, and tropical palm trees.

Sergey Navasardyan has been expanding his artistic horizons in recent years, moving from city walls to explore new media such as paper, cardboard, and canvas.

Sergey Navasardyan's Laundry exhibition at the Cafesjian Center for the Arts represents his first major project in an institutional museum space, moving away from his usual urban environment. As the artist explains, the pieces featured in the Laundry show “reflect a period of artistic transition and experimentation, as I explore the intersection between design and art: a move towards absolute abstraction.”

The concept behind Laundry encompasses several topics. Sergey's "washing machine" is the artistic process he goes through, where he blends together his identities as an artist, graphic designer, fashion enthusiast, and urban and pop culture fan. The resulting mixture represents a unique symbiosis of these different elements, simultaneously purifying and fusing them together. Through the use of vast sheets, Sergey's work reflects the layers of experiences that have shaped him as an artist, yet the underlying narrative remains consistent – “a celebration of life, Yerevan, and the right to live and create”.

For the artist, the transition from street art to other mediums or museum spaces poses no contradiction, as he believes that "the museum space is an important element of urban culture. It is merely one step from the streets to the museum."

For the Cafesjian Center for the Arts, on the other hand, Sergey Navasardyan's Laundry exhibition is an opportunity to embrace and showcase urban artistic culture within the institutional space, furthering the Center's vision of creating more open and accessible museum environment.