SCULPTOR VARDAN
Vardan was born in the Chechnya to an artist and a school principal. After beginning art school at the age of six, Vardan had his first solo exhibition at age of 10. After graduating, he was accepted to an art school for the future students of The Academy of Fine Art. Vardan’s work is a process which transforms ordinary matter into an extraordinary form that connects the realm of dreams and fillings with the material world. Conceptual Realism is a style that he has developed over many years. This is a continuation of the archaic traditional style created by his beloved mentor Ernst Neizvestny. Vardan is a third generation sculptor, and is currently working on his dissertation dedicated to the Cappella Sistina. In 1997, after living through the turmoil of two wars in his homeland Chechnya, Vardan was forced to leave the Soviet Union and fled to the United States due to the several factors and one of them was his Jewish-Armenian ancestry. He comes from the one of the prominent Armenian dynasties of Karabach, the dynasty of Melik Egan, the son of the Catholicos Gukas the First Garnetzy, house of Cilicia(1731-1737). His family roots began during the Second Jerusalem Temple, when in the First century of BC, his and several other noble families of Jerusalem were invited to move to Armenia by the Emperior Tigranes the Great. Several years later, Vardan was recognized by the highly acclaimed sculptor Ernst Neizvestny as his only apprentice. Vardan is also the only non-American born Industrial Designer chosen to become one of the creators of presidential limousines for two US presidents, GeorgeW.Bush and Barack Obama. Vardan works with traditional materials including stone, bronze, steel, glass and has participated in some of the most exclusive projects world wide including monuments, mosaic murals, portrait sculptures and oversized stained glass as well asRoman,Florentine and Byzantine mosaics.