Gevorg Endza Babakhanyan
"My childhood is concealed in my paintings which help me live TODAY. I love life only when I look at it through the red windows of my childhood. Every stroke of my paintbrush is a prayer to me."
This is how Endza describes himself. As he said himself, the strokes of his paintbrush clearly show the strong influence of his life as a child. Those difficult times stir deep emotions which he bravely transfers onto canvas, without trying to "please" the eye of the beholder and aiming only at revealing the events of the past that made him the man he is today. An artist is somebody, who transfigures reality and gives us a new vision of the world which is not perceived all the time. He is able to do so because art transmits the dramas and enthusiasms of men without the normal mental structures that life forces us to build. This is what Endza gives us in every picture he shows us, the changes in his life which could be those of any of us. He places them before us, lively and genuine. Sometimes the colors and features are somber, sometimes there are bright and symphonic animated, just as our life unravels as the years go by. When we stop and look at one of Endza's works it is like looking at a mirror which holds the memory of our life, like a window we have never dared look out of. This is how Endza wants us to remember him. His works of art come into being through his meek approach to the world and his tenacity in life, his travels in Armenia, Israel and Italy. The wish to grow and achieve artistic maturity, leaving behind the things he had and made his own, and to start a journey towards "his" art, is the force behind his work.
BIOGRAPHY
1968 Was born in the village Gai, Echmiadzin, Armenia
1985 Graduated from local primary school with academic excellence
1985-91 Graduated from the Fine Arts University, Yerevan, Armenia
1986-88 Served in the Soviet Army
1990-92 Acted at Yerevan “Nork” theatre
1992-95 Studied at the Armenian Theological Seminary, Jerusalem
1995 Attended Art and Painting private courses in Israel
1995 Was ordained as priest by Archbishop Torkom Manoogian, Armenian Patriarch of
Jerusalem
2000-05 Served as Priest in Haifa and Tel Aviv
2003 Graduated from the Jerusalem Art Studio
2008 Graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, Venice, Italy
2010 Art director of the theater “Machanents”, Cross of Armenian Unity NGO
EXHIBITIONS
1995 Personal exhibition - Jerusalem, Israel
1997 Personal exhibition - Amman, Jordan
1998 Personal exhibition - Beit Hanina, Israel
1999 Group exhibition - Armenia
2000 Personal exhibition - Los Angeles, USA
2000 Personal exhibition - City Hall of Jerusalem, Israel
2000 Personal exhibition – Beit Gabriel, Israel
2001 Personal exhibition - Bethlehem, Palestine
2002 Personal exhibition – Montreal and Toronto, Canada
2004 Group exhibition - Merkaz Beck, Jerusalem
2005 Group exhibition – Yafa, Israel
2007 Personal exhibition – Venice, Italy
2008 Personal exhibition – Venice and Milan, Italy
2009 Personal Exhibition – Arts Gallery of the Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France
2009 Personal exhibition – Volterra, Italy
2009 Personal exhibition – Malta
2010 Group exhibition – Malta
2010 Group exhibition – Yerevan, Armenia
2011 Personal exhibition - Samara, Tolyati Russia
2012 Personal exhibition - Vrubel Museum, Omsk, Russia
2012 Group exhibition - Mogilev, Belarus
2013 Personal exhibition - Krasnodar, Russia
2014 Group exhibition - Patras, Greece
2014 Group exhibition - Ekaterinburg, Russia
2014 Group exhibition - Saint Petersburg, Russia
2015 Machanents International Painting Symposium, group exhibition - Ejmiatsin, Armenia
2015 Group exhibition - Vilnius , Litvia
2015 Group exhibition - Moldova
2015 Group exhibition - Saint Petersburg, Russia
2015 Personal exhibition - Pasadena, USA
2015 Personal exhibition - Arizona, USA
2015 Personal exhibition - Burbank, USA
2016 Personal exhibition - Seattle, USA
2016 Group exhibition - United Arab Emirates
2016 Group exhibition - Samara, Russia
2016 Group exhibition - Moscow, Russia
2016 Group exhibition - Tunis
2017 Personal exhibition - Moscow, Russia
2017 Group exhibition - The city of Rostock, Germany
2018 Group exhibition - Russia, Krasnodar
2019 Personal exhibition – New York, USA