You are invited to the opening of Shariss’s solo exhibition titled “From Close Up”.
Date: October 16, 4:00 PM
The exhibition will run until October 31.
From Close Up
Shariss’s approach is photographic. He captures moments from daily urban and natural scenes in France, Armenia, and Italy, where he intermittently resides. Spontaneity is a key aspect of his creative process. The image catches his eye, which he documents with a cell phone, and then revisits with his analog Nikon camera.
Shariss states: “I see beauty in insignificant things… broken objects seem more free. Humanity is imperfect, and what we create is a reflection of that. That is beauty for me.”
His works have a didactic nature, often compelling the viewer to confront images that are difficult to recognize as fragments of reality.
For Shariss, there are two realities: the human and the natural. The first is flawed, while the latter is an unattainable ideal. His goal is not to compare the two but to observe how they infiltrate one another. Are intertwined plant stems pipes? Cracked paint or tree bark? From close up, this is ambiguous. Through black-and-white photography, the artist abstracts his subjects, directing the viewer’s attention to texture, pattern, and form.
Shariss’s visual language of unexpectedly cutting the image, the contrast of form and light, and the use of repetition follow the modernist tradition of Bauhaus, Neues Sehen (New Vision), and American Straight Photography. However, his approach to photography is far from purist. Often, he applies metallic paint to the photographic surface, and at times, he “finishes” his image with drawing. His deliberate choice to print on drawing paper emphasizes the graphic quality of the images and highlights the importance of drawing in his creative practice. The relationship between these two media—photography and drawing—reflects the artist’s dual perception of reality, mechanical lens versus hand-drawn sketch, spontaneous versus conceived.
Regardless of the media choice, Shariss’s creative practice is an exercise in observation. The exhibited works invite the viewer to notice the insignificant, discarded objects, and the unexpected beauty of imperfection.
Anna Gargaryan
Yerevan, September 2021