From September 7th to November 7th, Armenia’s capital city, Yerevan, will host and present the works of internationally renowned artists. The First International Print Biennale took place in 2017. This significant cultural event is aimed at bringing together fine art printing professionals from all over the world while introducing Armenian art to global audiences and creating a platform for cultural dialogue. This year, about 1227 artists from 76 countries applied to participate in the Biennale. The international jury selected 227 artists from 52 countries who will be presenting 357 works of art.

The president of KulturDialog organization, Sona Harutyunyan, noted that the development of fine art printing in Armenia is one of their biggest priorities. The number of Armenian participants have doubled this year compared to the previous year’s event, and the number of fine art printing submissions increased at the Academy of Fine Arts.

The Second International Print Biennale will feature a jury panel that consists of five experts who will select the winning works several days after the opening of the Biennale. The President of the panel is Dr. Mateusz Otraba from Poland, Vice-President is Margarit Lehman from Switzerland and international jury members are Herbert Mayer from Germany, Lian Ng from the United States, and Sona Harutyunyan from Armenia.

In addition to the actual competition, the Biennale will also feature individual exhibitions by Polish artist Tomasz Vynarski, who was the First Prize winner of the First International Print Biennale, Armenian artist Samvel Hambardzumyan, Chinese artist Minnie Zhang, who was also the Second Place winner in 2017, Jurgen Midelman from Germany, an Estonian exhibition, and three classes taught by French artist, Brice Ammar-Khoja.

The organization of international exhibitions of fine art printing began during the second half of the 20th century. Since then, several events showcasing this type of work has been organized including the Ljubljana Graphic Art Biennial in 1955, the Krakow Stamp Triennial in 1966, Tallinn Fine Arts Triennial in 1968, the Fine Arts Center of the Lodz in 1979, and the International Fine Arts Triennial in 1979.

There are now about fifty regular exhibitions around various parts of the world including Canada, Japan, South Korea, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, the Baltic states, Russia and others. This form of fine art printing is not only used by graphic designers but also by other artists, including painters, sculptors, potters, who use various forms of graphic design. Rafael, Durer, Rembrandt, Goya, Monet, Renoir, Picasso, and others had used stamping techniques.

The Second International Print Biennale Award Ceremony was hold on September 10th at the HayArt Cultural Center in Yerevan, Armenia.

The Biennale’s Award-winning artists are:

Grand Prix: HUI ZHANG (CHINA)- “Gaze toward the light-2” 2017

First Prize: SUDJARIT RATTANA (THAILAND)- “2 a.m.” 2017

Second Prize: KZYSZTOF TOMALSKI (POLAND)- “Genesis VI for astrophysicists” 2018

Third Prize: MUANTA SUPATTANAWADEE (THAILAND)- “Gender bending” 2018

The prizes for the winners of The Second International Print Biennale were created by sculptor Edgar Grigoryan.

The following artists were given honorable mentions by the jury members:

Tingting Chen (China)

Tracy Templeton (USA)

Saeedeh Golriz (Iran)

Jiang Siwei Jiang (China)

Toomas Kuusing (Estonia)

Oliver Pilić (Slovenia)

Wai Wong (Hong Kong)

Akawat Deeto (Thailand)

Brandie Grogan (USA)

Meri Andreasyan (Armenia)

The special prize presented by the All-Armenia Fund was awarded to Armenian artist Arman Vahanyan for his invaluable contribution to the preservation, development, internationalization and establishment of the Yerevan International Biennale of Fine Arts.

The Second International Print Biennale is open until November 7th, 2019.