Vasken Mardikian
Vasken Mardikian was born in 1975 in Antwerp, Belgium. His work deals with the problem of identity, economic and social pressure, personality, behavior, human condition. Knowledge, cultural background, originality, humor and contemporary society are sources of inspiration for his performances that are found both in media and in everyday life. His work is mostly realize in the form of performances and documented with photographs or video, but also in the memories of the people.Vasken Mardikian received a Bachelor degree in piano performances from Maastricht music conservatory in 2000 and later studied at Yale University school of Art with the Fulbright grant where he received his MFA in painting in 2008. His professors included Peter Halley, Mel Bochner, Robert Storr. Other award included; Schickle-Collingwood Award and Barry Schactman Prize, both from Yale, and a Godecharle award from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Brussels.He has participated at the Nanji Art studio Artist residency in Seoul and the Swatch Art Peace Hotel Residency in Shanghai, both for a duration of 6 months.His work has been included in solo and group exhibition in Museums, galleries and art fairs, in Brussels, Paris, New York, Miami, Kyoto and Seoul. His work has been reviewed or published in VoicesNews, MutualArt: USA, artexpo: Belgium, Public Art: Korea.Vasken Mardikian has lived in Belgium, USA, Korea and China. He has lectured at Dankook University, Korea, and will start a new position this coming September at Zhejiang University of Media and Communications, China.