ZARI KAZANDJIAN Biography
Zari Kazandjian
Artists Biography
Zari is a Canadian Armenian artist, currently living and working in Montreal.
Showing artistic promise early on, Zari was often caught drawing in class by her
teachers. Rather than discourage the behaviour her art enthusiast parents encouraged herr abilities. She began taking painting and drawing classes where she discovered a love of classical art. It was not until high school that she was introduced to abstract art.
While she remained true to her love of classical art she was struck by
Robert Rauschenberg’s work. Especially his renowned pieces Rebus and Bed. These works would eventually shape the ideals of what her art should become.
Zari continued her academic art education at Dawson college where she began to paint abstracts. In the midst of these new processes, she found herself disenchanted with her own work. She dismissed her early abstract painting and chose to concentrate her efforts on the study of art history.
“ Looking back now I know how good those early paintings were. I believed then, that for a painting to be good it would mean that it was difficult to produce. I just did not realize how naturally abstract art came to me and in fact how difficult it truly is to create a great abstract piece.”
Zari went on to earn a bachelor degree in art history at Mcgill university. Where she immersed myself in the study of art and absorbed all that she could about the movements and periods of its history. Yet, while at Mcgill she missed the serenity of the studio sessions. She decided to enrol in the only studio art classes offered at the university at the time, where she studied under Professor Richard Lynn Studham who would leave a lasting impression on her work.
Under his tutelage, She was encouraged to pursue classical training, so she continued her education at the Academy de Bresole in the old port of Montreal, where she studied the techniques of the old masters.
After some time working on her craft and learning the methods of the classical masters, she decided to push even further and studied Graphic Design.
Zari spent years building a strong base in fundamentals of art and an understanding of art technologies but it did not take long for her to realize something was still out of place. Nothing was clicking.
In late 2016 her sister commissioned her to paint an
abstract piece for her new home. No guidelines or requests she simply stated she wanted something abstract. Zari hesitated at first to step back into her abstract works but dove in. She has never looked back.