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Marie Pargas Art Gallery combines passion for music, art

ASHEVILLE – Asheville’s allure, it seems, resonates far and wide. Within just a few months of one international gallery opening, another embarks on its journey of introducing the art of yet another part of world to the Asheville area.

Located in the tony Biltmore Station, Marie Pargas Art Gallery showcases predominately Armenian artists, but also the work of select local painters, such as architect Mark Allison’s small ink and watercolor renderings.

For owners Cecelia Maerder and Zaven Parsamyan, it is a blending of talents and passions for both art and music that brought them to form this collaboration.

The couple had been searching for a place to settle that would bring them closer to an aesthetic in life and culture that they had been missing since moving to Tennessee from Boston (Maerder) and Spain (Parsamyan) some years ago.

The two originally met over music, when Cecelia Maerder would drive her son some three hours every week from Kingsport to Knoxville and back, for classical piano lessons with acclaimed concert pianist Parsamyan.

The pianist, a graduate of the Komitas State Conservatory in Armenia’s capital of Yerevan, lived in Spain for six years prior to coming to the United States and served as dean of the piano department at the Cita di Roma Conservatory in Zaragoza. It seemed only natural that in joining forces, finding that aesthetic would involve art.

“We’re passionate about the arts in general, particularly the musical arts and the visual arts,” says Maerder. “…and feel there is so much lacking in our society now, that the future generations aren’t going to be getting enough exposure to the classical arts.”

“My mother was a fanatic about classical music,” recalls Maerder. “One of the best things she did for her kids was playing classical music and taking us to concerts … it was something a lot of people never experienced. The fact that my parents came from nothing and gave us all that was amazing.”

An Armenia aesthetic

Parsamyan was raised around the rich arts culture in Armenia. His aunt was a celebrated painter, and several of the artists in Marie Pargas Gallery are relatives, or distant relatives, and certainly friends of the pianist.


“I was looking for the highest level of artist I could find over there,” states Parsamyan. “It’s a good opportunity for them, of course, to show their work in America, but it’s exciting for me to show the minimalist art that I like of my countrymen.”


Armenia’s cultural roots run deep.


Often called one of the cradles of civilization, it became the first nation to formally adopt Christianity in the early 4th century. Situated south of Georgia and east of Turkey, Armenia came under the rule of various empires including the Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Persian, and Ottoman, over the centuries despite periods of autonomy. It was incorporated into Russia in 1828 and the USSR in 1920.


Now independent, Armenia maintains a population of close to 3 million, but its far-flung Diaspora adds another 5 million to that population.


The gallery’s focus lies distinctively on the art of Armenia – most notably abstract works and other contemporary pieces from relatively young painters.


One of the breakout artists in the gallery is also the youngest – 24-year old Arshak Sarkissian. Already shown in solo exhibitions in Cyprus, Armenia, and London, Arshak’s work will be the focus of an upcoming springtime exhibition.


His pen and ink drawings, such as “Poor Market,” are elaborate constructions of layer upon layer of narrative, symbolism, and allegory, with defined characters that appear engaged with each other like actors caught amidst a scene.


The flowing lines of Arshak’s figures emerge much like the armature of a sculpture, seemingly supporting the remaining edifice of each character, and indeed, the entire amorphous group as one body.


Ararat Sarkissian, whose work has been featured in exhibitions in New York’s SOHO, Chicago, France, Germany, Jordan, Russia, Iran, Cyprus, and Japan, imbues a ghostly quality to his pale oil on linen paintings.


The last of the Sarkissians at Marie Pargas is Arthur, whose paintings stand out as the brightest and boldest. Deep washes of umber and saffron act as a backdrop for “superimposed” iconic images of art through the ages in “Memories from the Museum.”


Conversely, Gagik Charchyan chooses pure abstraction in two black, white, and gray paintings – perhaps not as challenging as works permeated with cultural and ethnic references – but a footnote on the art of another culture half way around the world, nonetheless.


“How many peopleeven know where Armenia is or anything about its culture and history?” wonders Donna Morris, a beginning art collector who moved to Asheville from Washington, D.C., three years ago.


“Art from this – or anycountry for that matter – is a window for the curious to peer through and capture something from someplace you might never see in person.”

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