Reisig and Taylor Contemporary is honored to present “Magaxat,” a historical survey of paintings, prints, and sculptures by Rudik Ovsepyan (b. 1949: Leninakan, Armenia). The timeframe of the survey is 1976 – Present. The exhibition opens August 26 with a reception from 5:00pm – 10:00pm.
Ranging from the bucolic landscape sceneries that formalized his (former) career as a Soviet artist to his current, material-focused works in abstraction, the exhibition recovers autobiographical traces of Ovsepyan’s evolving practice across multiple languages and multiple countries he has called home. Displaying personally and historically significant works from each period of dwelling in a different place—Armenia (USSR), Germany, and the United States—this first major survey of Ovsepyan’s work focuses on transitional phases of his oeuvre. The selected works demonstrate an anticipatory or consequential relation to the irruption of his singular mode of abstraction that emerged in the wake of the 1988 Spitak earthquake in Armenia. In particular, the exhibition will show transitional works from his Red series (1988-1992), produced directly in response to this traumatic event, as well as new and unseen works from his time in the United States. Ultimately, this driving work in abstraction caused him to be banned as a Soviet artist, and motivated him to immigrate to Germany, and then the United States, in order to continue his insurgent practice.
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Born in 1949 in Leninakan, Armenia, Rudik Ovsepyan became a member of the Fine Art Association of the USSR in 1982, eventually being banned for his refusal to paint in the propagandistic style of “social(ist) realism.” From 1966-1969, he attended Terlemesyan Fine Art College in Armenia. In 1974, graduated from the prestigious state University of Theatre and Fine Art (or, the State Academy of Fine Arts of Armenia) in Yerevan. Facing the widespread destruction of the 1988 Spitak earthquake, as well the evolving political turmoil surrounding his abstract painting, Ovsepyan and his family moved (by boat) to Germany in 1990, where he became a member of the Fine Art Association of Germany (in 1994). There, several solo and group presentations of his work occurred in gallery, state, fair, and museum exhibitions. In 2000, a major exhibition of Ovsepyan’s abstract works with oil and paper produced between 1996-1999 was presented by the German ministry of Education, Science, Research and Culture of Schleswig-Holstein (presented in Kiel). Later that year, Ovsepyan immigrated to the United States and began working on new bodies of work, including “Labyrinth,” “Magaxat,” and “Zaun,” while also beginning to produce sculptures. The most recent gallery exhibition of his work in the United States was in 2005 at Ruth Bachofner Gallery (Santa Monica, CA). A selection of his works was exhibited with Reisig and Taylor Contemporary at Art Market San Francisco in April 2023.
Ovsepyan’s works are included in public and private collections in Russia, Europe, Israel, Canada, and the United States, including: UNESCO, Geneva, Switzerland; Pushkin Museum, Moscow; Museum of Modern Art, Armenia, Yerevan; Museum of Modern Art, Georgia, Tblisi; Sparkasse Schleswig-Holstein, Germany; Sparkasse, Muenster, Germany; Provinzial Versicherung; Bundesministerium der Verteidigung, Kiel, Germany.
