Anaeis Ohanian

Anaeis Ohanian
Born	1993 Tehran, Iran
Nationality	Iranian-Armenian
Education	BFA California Institute of the Arts (2016)
Website	http://www.Anaeisohanian.com

Anaeis Ohanian is an Armenian interdisciplinary artist whose practice includes material based-installations, sculpture, costume, music, new media arts, performance, and film. The primary subject matter of Ohanian’s work is related to artifacts and visions of the future, both utopian and dystopian. The future in her work is a tool Ohanian utilizes to offer her audience a framework through which to reflect upon the present. Through her installations and performance pieces, she offers the audience an opportunity to become time travelers on an experiential journey of a theoretical discourse. Most notably, her work manifests in bizarre archeological, geological, and environmental installations that serve as relics of future visions or storylines she calls “findings.” Her findings serve as cautionary tales of different possibilities of our precarious future.

Ohanian works within a dichotomy of capitalism and the environment in order to address the destructive relationship between the two and warn of an increasingly bleak future. In her Kuá Hakké Springs National Park body of work, Ohanian uses sand, polymer, and discarded clothing to create 6ft boulders from a future where our synthetic waste has ingrained itself into the very DNA of the planet. The narratives Ohanian creates through her “findings” are set in a future thousands of years away, where society conducts itself in “modern” cities as well as an eclectic collection of tribes. Like the planet itself, these societies in Ohanian’s “findings” have been genetically influenced by the environment’s evolution. Each of her body of work, which make up a series, can be thought of as a chapter in a book: connected, cohesive, and sequential.

Ohanian was born in Iran but grew up in Los Angeles, California where she was exposed to a vibrant and diverse art scene. She found her passion within psytrance and other various music festival communities where the foundations of her aesthetic developed. At eighteen years old, Anaeis Ohanian attended the California Institute of the Arts, where she won first place for the Chiquita Canyon Found Art Scholarship Program. Ohanian considers herself a lifelong learner and continues to teach herself.

Exhibitions

Individual Exhibitions

• 2019 66Pounds, Terrain Biannual, curated by Association of Hysterics Curators, 5117 Argus dr. Los Angeles, CA 90041

• 2015 6007, D300 Gallery, California Institute of the Arts, Santa Clarita, California

• 2014 Deceptions of Utopic Travelers, The Wild Beast Courtyard, California Institute of the Arts, Santa Clarita, California

• 2011 The Shortest Distance between Two Points, A402 Gallery, California Institute of the Arts, Santa Clarita, California

Selected Group Exhibitions

• 2019 Amphibium, Irrational Exhibits, curated by Deborah Oliver, Bendix Building (Track 16, Monte Vista, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Gallery 515, Mutable Studios), Los Angeles, CA

• 2018 Skulpturengarten, Curated by Ichiro Irie, The Reef L.A., Los Angeles, California

• 2018 Tran(s)mundo, Curated by Ichiro Irie, Jaus Gallery, Los Angeles, California

• 2018 Burning Man LA Decompression, curated by Dale Youngman, Los Angeles State Historic Park, Los Angeles, California

• 2018 Other worlds, curated by Martin Durazo, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, California

• 2018 Feminine Anthem, curated by Thinh Nyguyen, Kamikaze at POST, Los Angeles, California

• 2016 (Im)Possibilities // Defying Misfortune, Common Ground Collective, Sunland, California

• 2013 100 PERCENT 2, D301 Gallery, California Institute of the Arts, Santa Clarita, California

• 2011 The Thirteenth Grade, Curated by Mary Anna Pomonis, POST Los Angeles, California

• 2009 What If This Was your Life? Collaborative Art Installation, Hoover Gallery, Glendale, California