Hrag Vartanian

Hrag Vartanian (Armenian: Հրակ Վարդանեան) is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of the arts blog Hyperallergic. He is a writer,^[1] critic^[2] and curator.^[3]

Vartanian was born in Aleppo, Syria,^[4] raised in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Hyperallergic was founded by Vartanian and his husband Veken Gueyikian in October 2009 as a "forum for serious, playful and radical thinking".^[5]

Vartanian has contributed to numerous online and print publications including the Art:21 blog,^[6] Boldtype, The Brooklyn Rail,^[7] Huffington Post,^[8] AGBU News Magazine, Ararat Magazine,^[9] and NYFA Current.^[10] He has guest contributed to Al Jazeera,^[11] NPR,^[12] ABC,^[13] and WNYC.^[14][15][16]

He was formerly Director of Communications at AGBU, the world's largest Armenian non-profit organization. Vartanian was a staunch supporter of the controversial Hide/Seek exhibit which was censored by the Smithsonian.^[17]

Writings

• "Do Bush’s Paintings Tell Us Anything About the Former President?" (February 2013)^[18]
• "An Experiment in Street Art Criticism" (March 2010)^[19]
• “Is Contemporary Architecture a PR Panacea for Autocrats? Western Architectural Ethics & Undemocratic Nations“ in Brooklyn Rail (September 2008)^[20]
• “The Very Public Life of Street Art” in Brooklyn Rail (May 2008)^[21]
• "Peter Sourian" from "Forgotten Bread: First Generation Armenian-American Writers" edited by David Kherdian (Berkeley, CA: Heyday books, 2007)^[22]
• "An Imaginary Armenian Canadian Homeland: Gariné Torossian’s Dialogue with Egoyan" from Image and Territory: Essays on Atom Egoyan edited by Monique Tschofen and Jennifer Burwell (Waterloo, ON: Wildred Laurier University Press, 2006).^[23]
• Bushwick Open Studios featuring artists: Andrew Ohanesian, Tescia Seufferlein, Andrew Cornell Robinson, Richard Martinez.
• "Schwierige Wahrheiten: Die Schriftstellerin Nancy Kricorian (The Will to Resist: A Portrait of Nancy Kricorian)," in Porträt einer Hoffnung Die Armenier edited by Huberta von Voss (Verlag Hans Schiller, 2004). English edition^[24]
• "New York Life Recognizes Genocide Era Insurance Claims," AGBU Magazine (April 2004).^[25]
• "Nazi Style Wars," The Brooklyn Rail (October 2003).^[26]
• "Curating on the Margins," The Brooklyn Rail (Winter 2003).^[27]
• "Artist Biographies," The Clement Greenberg Collection (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University, 2001).
• FutureHype/Kitabet, edited by Carmen Donabedian & Hrag Vartanian (Beirut: Haigazian University, 1998).
• "Chine Drive: An Arts & Crafts Community," in The Stuff Dreams are Made of: The Art and Design of Frederick and Louise Coates (Toronto: University of Toronto, 1997).

References

External links

• Official website
• Hyperallergic
• Hrag Vartanian on Twitter
• Brooklyn Rail Archives
• ArtCat Archives