The Gloom

Armen Manukyan-Burovtsov, Armenia

Born in 1976 in the USSR in the city of Leningrad, in a family of an architect and an artist, he was the only child. Since childhood, he was fascinated by natural sciences, physics, and chemistry. His father and maternal uncle were architects, and his mother was an artist – the child was always surrounded by creativity and people involved in the arts. In such an environment, it was impossible not to draw, using various paints. At the age of 6, in 1982, for his birthday, he received his first camera, the FED Micron – a Soviet engineering development with a frame format of 24x18 – a standard cassette held not 36 frames, but 72, allowing experimentation and trial and error, sparking a new direction in development – photography. It's worth noting that in the Soviet Union, there was no service for developing and printing photos; thus, from an early age, Armen also mastered various techniques of processing photographic materials. One could say that his enrollment in an art lyceum in 1991 and later in the Academy of Arts in 1994, specializing in Architecture, was absolutely natural, even predetermined. After graduating from the Academy of Arts in 2000, Armen went to work in Ireland, Dublin, where he was involved in the development and design of public interiors and architectural creativity. Upon returning to Russia in 2002, he intensively engaged in architecture and urban planning. Designing for the largest developers in St. Petersburg, his rapid career growth at the age of 35 led him to lead a large design organization involved in comprehensive development of territories, from concept to implementation. However, architecture, especially urban planning, is a highly regulated activity. One could say that for 10 minutes of architectural creativity, an architect pays with 2-3 years of developing working documentation. Engaging in free creativity, not confined by norms and customer requirements, became a pressing necessity. Thus, he began to express himself through photography, sculpture, ceramics, stained glass, drawing, and painting. As a natural experimenter, Armen often combines various, often unconventional materials in his artwork, giving birth to unique, original techniques, creating one-of-a-kind art objects. From museum exhibits to interior-forming objects, shaping space and light, or utilitarian household items – all are constant searches and experiments, all in a single copy, non-repeating and original. A member of the Union of Artists of Russia since 2000, Armen has participated in various exhibitions, including international ones.