PETER SARKISIAN

JONATHAN FERRARA GALLERY is proud to announce recent video works, an exhibition of Santa Fe-based artist Peter Sarkisian . Following his inclusion in the traveling exhibition, Guns in the Hands of Artists, Sarkisian’s first solo show at the gallery features more works in the artist’s characteristic style; which combines video projection and sculpture to create a hybrid form of multi-media installation.  Many of Sarkisian's earliest methods predate those now used in the entertainment and multi­media industries. In 2008 Mechanical Engineering magazine published a feature article on Sarkisian's work, noting his innovations: "Technology is transforming human experience and the means we use to tell our stories. Visionaries like Peter Sarkisian are addressing its challenges by using technology in new and innovative ways, as ally and tool, providing fresh experience and renewed meaning.” The exhibition will be on view in the main gallery from 5 November through 31 December 2016 with First Saturday Gallery Openings on 5 November and 3 December from 6-9pm.

Sarkisian studied photography and film at the California Institute of the Arts and the American Film Institute in the late 1980’s, and then began working with video as a sculptural element in the mid 90’s. The underlying premise of his work remains committed to using video as an instrument against commercialized media, namely television, in order to transform the act of watching video from an experience-killing endeavor to an experience-creating one. He accomplishes this by joining sculptural elements with projected video imagery to create audio/visual illusions that trap the viewer between conflicting interpretations, thereby forcing a state of self-awareness that is otherwise absent while watching television. 

Sarkisian was among an early group of artists to project video images against non-planar viewing surfaces, a technique he helped develop in the 1990's by digitally augmenting the spatial characteristics of projected images to match physical surfaces of varying shape and angular orientation. Since then Sarkisian has pushed the state of his art in an effort to discover new and exciting techniques, often incorporating cutting edge technology such as 3D CNC, vacuum forming and 3D printing into his creative process.