Ani Eloyan
To me, painting is about making a gesture; a gesture towards reality, since there’s really no way to capture it as it is.
Ani Eloyan via NRC Handelsblad, 2012
An interest in the inner workings of the image is foundational to the work of Ani Eloyan (1988, Armenia), especially the image as we encounter it in popular culture and the mass media. Each canvas is densely layered with expressionist composition, cartoonish contradictions and symbolism; a world the viewer is unsuspectingly guided into with an instinctive chuckle. Once immersed in it, however, the humor which enticed one to enter shows itself to be fiercely barbed, pointing with poignancy to issues of class, sexuality, gender and stereotyping.
