armine atoyan portfolio

armenia

Armine Atoyan (she/her) is a highly regarded multidisciplinary artist and teacher based in Hrazdan, in the Kotayk province of Armenia. Since 2010 she has exhibited her work at museums and cultural centers in Yerevan and beyond. In addition to her art practices of drawing, creating collages, and making papier-mâché dolls, she is also an accomplished textile artist. She works every day to hone her skills and has mastered five types of lacemaking including needlelace from Van (two-dimensional) and Garin (three-dimensional), tatting, bobbin lace, and macrame.

With a keen and poetic interest in textiles, she shares that “embroidery is like air and water for me. It motivates me to live.” While her mother always crocheted and knitted, Armine notes that Armenian needlelace is not widely popular in her community. She first learned to make needlelace as a student of revered expert, lecturer, and author Lusine Mkhitaryan, who holds the title of People’s Master of the Republic of Armenia. Armine further developed her learning by studying various books and now holds the title of People’s Master of the Republic of Armenia herself. One of her goals is to popularize Armenian stitches through art, often combining different types of traditional Armenian needlework into one work of art.

When Armine was growing up in the 1980s, she learned various embroidery techniques while in school. By the late 1990s, at the age of thirteen she embroidered her then-newborn brother’s bedding. Following this she started doing cross-stitch embroidery. In the mid 2010s, she applied to the Teryan Cultural Center in Yerevan and began to study Armenian needlework in depth. As she notes, “self-education is very important to me, and I learn new stitches every day from the internet and from books.”

Interestingly, Armine’s first profession was in biochemistry. She then went onto studying drawing and embroidery professionally. Armine has taught traditional needlework and other arts to women and children in different regions of Armenia and has received high praise. When she was teaching at the school in Shvanidzor village in Meghri, they named the class after her. Nowadays she teaches embroidery, doll making, and batik at the Children's and Youth Creative Center in Hrazdan, and continues teaching women in Hrazdan and online. She has had many students who, like her, continue to do needlework and make custom orders for their clients.

Knowing many types of stitches and loving the craft, Armine receives a diversity of orders. Recently, she embroidered a complex traditional women's costume from the Shirak region and the mayor of Gyumri presented it to the museum of Yazd, Gyumri’s sister city in Iran. She has embroidered costumes from almost all regions of Armenia and nowadays studies types of needlework associated with Armenian churches.

In her own words:

Իմ արվեստի հիմքում որպես մտածոություն՝ մարդն է, նրա վիճակը, միտքը։ Այն նպատակ ունի վերարժևորել ձեռագործի մշակույթը՝ ընդգծելով նրա ներուժը ժամանակակից արվեստի համատեքստում։ Ընդգրկելով գրականություն՝ աշխատանքները կատարված են հայկական ասեղնակարերով, հանգույցներով, թղթով, կտորով։ Յուրաքանչյուր կար այս աշխատանքներում ժամանակի ու լռության երկխոսություն է, որտեղ կիրառականը վերածվում է արվեստի։

Translation:

At the heart of my art is the human being, and his or her condition and mind. It aims to revalue the culture of handicraft, highlighting its potential in the context of contemporary art. Incorporating literature, the works are made with Armenian embroidery, knots, paper, and cloth. Each stitch in these works is a dialogue of time and silence, where the practical turns into art.