DUNES

Born in Yerevan in 1964, Tigran Malkhasyan grew up in a family of engineers and trained in radio electronics and physical optics. During his studies, he was among the first artists in the Soviet Union to experiment with artistic holography, using Denisyuk’s method. He has worked as an independent artist since 1986 and now lives on the French Riviera. His recent solo exhibitions include Fractal Expressionism at Art Gallery TEOS in Monte-Carlo (2024) and Structures at the ARTMUZA Museum of Contemporary Art in Saint Petersburg (2020). His work is held in the collections of the Élysée Palace in Paris, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art and the National Gallery of Armenia.

His practice grew out of scientific experiment into a body of painting rooted in material and process. Early works explored urban space and architectural form, then moved steadily toward abstraction. Today his canvases are shaped by physical forces: gravity, oxidation and chemical reaction. In some series, the paint is poured by programmed robots according to a structure he has set in advance. Working across painting, relief and mixed media, he produces surfaces that recall mineral formations, fractal structures and molten landscapes, at once natural and artificial.

At the meeting point of science and material abstraction, Malkhasyan makes paintings that unfold like living systems, held in a fragile balance between order and transformation.