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Hrag Vartanian ( hy, Հրակ Վարդանեան)(born ) is an Armenian-American arts writer, art critic, and
art curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...
. He is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of the arts online magazine, '' Hyperallergic''.


Life and work

Vartanian was born in Aleppo, Syria, raised in
Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
,
Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
, Canada, and lives in
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, New York. His
blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...
- magazine ''Hyperallergic'' was founded by Vartanian and his husband Veken Gueyikian in October 2009 as a "forum for serious, playful and radical thinking". Vartanian has contributed to numerous online and print publications including the Art:21 blog, Boldtype,
The Brooklyn Rail ''The Brooklyn Rail'' is a publication and platform for the arts, culture, humanities, and politics. The ''Rail'' is based out of Brooklyn, New York. It features in-depth critical essays, fiction, poetry, as well as interviews with artists, criti ...
, Huffington Post,
AGBU The Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU, Eastern Armenian: Հայկական Բարեգործական Ընդհանուր Միություն, ՀԲԸՄ, ''Haykakan Baregortsakan Endhanur Miutyun'', or hyw, Հայ Բարեգործական Ընդ ...
News Magazine, Ararat Magazine, and NYFA Current. He has guest contributed to
Al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...
,
NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
, ABC, and
WNYC WNYC is the trademark and a set of call letters shared by WNYC (AM) and WNYC-FM, a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations located in New York City. WNYC is owned by New York Public Radio (NYPR), a nonprofit organization that ...
. He was formerly Director of Communications at
AGBU The Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU, Eastern Armenian: Հայկական Բարեգործական Ընդհանուր Միություն, ՀԲԸՄ, ''Haykakan Baregortsakan Endhanur Miutyun'', or hyw, Հայ Բարեգործական Ընդ ...
, the world's largest Armenian non-profit organization. Vartanian was a staunch supporter of the controversial ''Hide/Seek'' exhibit which was censored by the Smithsonian.


Curation

Vartanian has curated numerous exhibitions since the late 1990s. His most recent curatorial project was "Fixed Point Perspective: Ottoman Studio Photography and its Contemporary Legacy" at Minerva Projects in Denver, Colorado. The work in the show was a mix of contemporary and historical, and featured artists Gariné Torossian and Hrair Sarkissian, among others.


Writings

* "Do Bush's Paintings Tell Us Anything About the Former President?" (February 2013) * "An Experiment in Street Art Criticism" (March 2010) * "Is Contemporary Architecture a PR Panacea for Autocrats? Western Architectural Ethics & Undemocratic Nations" in ''Brooklyn Rail'' (September 2008) * "The Very Public Life of Street Art" in ''Brooklyn Rail'' (May 2008) * "Peter Sourian" from "Forgotten Bread: First Generation Armenian-American Writers" edited by David Kherdian (Berkeley, CA: Heyday books, 2007) * "An Imaginary Armenian Canadian Homeland: Gariné Torossian's Dialogue with Egoyan" from ''Image and Territory: Essays on
Atom Egoyan Atom Egoyan (; hy, Աթոմ Եղոյեան, translit=Atom Yeghoyan; born July 19, 1960) is a Canadian filmmaker. He was part of a loosely-affiliated group of filmmakers to emerge in the 1980s from Toronto known as the Toronto New Wave. Egoyan ...
'' edited by Monique Tschofen and Jennifer Burwell (Waterloo, ON: Wildred Laurier University Press, 2006). * Bushwick Open Studios featuring artists: Andrew Ohanesian, Tescia Seufferlein,
Andrew Cornell Robinson Andrew Cornell Robinson (born 1968) is an American artist and designer. He is based in New York City. Career Robinson's work spans various media from ceramics and painting to printmaking and sculpture. His work combines humor, history, and sculpt ...
, Richard Martinez. * "Schwierige Wahrheiten: Die Schriftstellerin Nancy Kricorian (The Will to Resist: A Portrait of Nancy Kricorian)," in ''Porträt einer Hoffnung Die Armenier'' edited by Huberta von Voss (Verlag Hans Schiller, 2004). English edition * "New York Life Recognizes Genocide Era Insurance Claims," ''AGBU Magazine'' (April 2004). * "Nazi Style Wars," ''The Brooklyn Rail'' (October 2003). * "Curating on the Margins," ''The Brooklyn Rail'' (Winter 2003). * "Artist Biographies," ''The Clement Greenberg Collection'' (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University, 2001). * ''FutureHype/Kitabet'', edited by Carmen Donabedian & Hrag Vartanian (Beirut:
Haigazian University Haigazian University ( hy, Հայկազեան Համալսարան, pronounced ''Haygazyan Hamalsaran''; ar, جامعة هايكازيان) is a higher education institution founded in 1955 in Beirut, Lebanon as Haigazian College. For a brief pe ...
, 1998). * "Chine Drive: An Arts & Crafts Community," in ''The Stuff Dreams are Made of: The Art and Design of Frederick and Louise Coates'' (Toronto: University of Toronto, 1997).


References


External links

*
Hyperallergic

Hrag Vartanian on Twitter

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Vartanian, Hrag Living people Canadian non-fiction writers Writers from New York (state) Syrian people of Armenian descent Syrian emigrants to Canada Canadian emigrants to the United States People from Aleppo American people of Armenian descent Canadian people of Armenian descent American bloggers American art critics Year of birth missing (living people) Canadian LGBT writers American LGBT writers LGBT people from New York (state) 21st-century American non-fiction writers