Meditative contemporary art: “Mantra” by Armen Agop
In this new body of work, the Egyptian-Armenian contemporary artist explores a meditative artistic practice undertaken with the complete synergy of mind, body and spirit in the exhibition, MANTRA.
Mantra, the title of this multidisciplinary exhibition, reflects the esoteric concept behind the work within this series, as physical documentation of a spiritual practice. Each artwork is undertaken with a focus or gestural mantra, set by the artist and created by a repeated action. Choosing the profound simplicity of the ‘point’, and applying it over and over, Agop seeks to discover its limitless potential.Working with basic, elemental entities such as a ‘point’ or ‘line’, and carefully observing them until he sees a new way of being, the artist describes this obsessive process as a meditative ritual, which seeks to reveal an internal cosmos.The contemporary artist, is well known for his black granite sculptures, expertly rendered into abstract organic forms, here Agop introduces his ethereal works on paper and canvas for the first time, lending a spiritual aspect. The paintings have a luminous quality, at first glance they resemble the inherent monumentality of the artist’s sculptural work with their large, black expanses of space. However, upon closer inspection, the works reveal an explosion of points in colourful hues, lightly and purposefully placed upon the canvas. The notions of time, labor, and ritual are rethought in these paintings, in an act of processing time.
www.armenagop.com
