WATERTOWN — Talleen Hacikyan, an illustrator and printmaker, will give an informal talk about her work at the opening of her exhibit at the Armenian Library and Museum of America (ALMA) on Wednesday, May 22, at 7 p.m. The exhibit will include prints and illustrations, including monotype, woodcut and linocut printing. Collagraphy is Hacikyan’s “medium of choice” as she notes that the flexible and direct nature of the technique allows for a more intuitive approach. She writes, “Working on the cardboard plate that will be inked and printed onto paper becomes an act of play. Etching and tearing the plate, gluing materials onto it and building it up with plaster lets me create fluidly. Images and episodes of an unconscious narrative are revealed to me as I work. Through symbols and textures that echo indigenous art and the memory of childhood I explore various themes that deal with our primordial connection to the natural world.”
Parallel to her printmaking practice, Hacikyan also illustrates children’s books. The exhibition features the original illustrations for Tork Angegh (Gomidas Institute, London, UK, 2007) and Aesop’s Fables retold by children’s author, Michael Rosen (Tradewind Press, Vancouver, BC, 2013). The illustrations for both books were created with acrylic paint, combined with hand printing and collage. For the hand-printed textures, she used objects ranging from woodblocks designed for textile printing, to leaves, onions, cabbage and broccoli.
Born in Montreal in 1959, Hacikyan is a visual artist, art educator and fiction writer. She has bachelor’s in anthropology from McGill University and a BA in fine arts and fine arts education from Université du Québec à Montréal. Awards include the Loto-Quebec Printmaking Prize, the Pierre Henry Prize from Pratt and Whitney Canada, and in 2012, a residency at Atelier de l’Île in Val David, Quebec.
Hacikyan has held many solo exhibitions and has participated in more than 70 juried group exhibitions in North America, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, France, Spain, Portugal, Taiwan and Australia.
Her website is www.talleen.net
Admission is free and open to the public. Refreshments will follow.
