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예술 설치

Ara Oshagan

Art curator

A Bit About Me

Ara Oshagan is a highly recognized photographer, curator, and storyteller whose work deeply engages with social justice, cultural identity, and historical memory. His projects often challenge narratives around immigration, incarceration, and diaspora, particularly within Armenian and underrepresented communities. Through exhibitions, public art, writing, and curatorial work, Oshagan continues to shape contemporary documentary photography and visual storytelling.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Awards
& Distinctions

  • Best Marketing Campaign – California Library Association (2018)

  • Cultural Trailblazer Award – Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (2016)

  • Top 100 Leading Global Thinker of 2015 – Foreign Policy Magazine, Washington DC

  • Freedom Award – Armenian National Committee (2001), for contributions to The Genocide Project

  • Finalist – Aperture Foundation Bi-annual Portfolio Review (2006)

  • Third Prize – Santa Fe Center for the Visual Arts, Visions Competition (2001)

Group Exhibitions

  • Photo LA, Focus LA Group Exhibition – Photo Fair (2020)

  • Yangpyeong Museum of Art, Light Paradise – South Korea (2019)

  • Downtown Central Library, Reconstruct(ed) Comfort Station – Glendale, CA (2018)

  • Venice Arts, Mirror – Venice, CA (2017)

  • Photoville Photo Festival, South Caucasus Live Documentary – Brooklyn, NY (2016)

  • Brand Art Gallery, 100life – Glendale, CA (2015)

  • Photoville, Cruel and Unusual: A Gripping Look Behind Prison Walls – Brooklyn, NY (2012)

  • Noorderlicht Gallery, Cruel and Unusual – Groningen, Holland (2012)

  • Open Society Institute, Moving Walls 18 – Manhattan, NY (2010-2011)

Permanent Collections

Major Curated Exhibitions

  • Access: A Century After Women’s Right to Vote – ReflectSpace, Glendale, CA (2020)

  • Fragmented Futures: Afghanistan 100 Years Later – ReflectSpace, Glendale, CA (2019-2020)

  • Tell Me: Stories of Migration to Glendale – ReflectSpace, Glendale, CA (2019)

  • Comfort Women Resist – ReflectSpace, Glendale, CA (2018)

  • Accused of No Crime: Japanese Incarceration in America – ReflectSpace, Glendale, CA (2018)

  • (in)visible: Negotiating the US-Mexico Border – ReflectSpace, Glendale, CA (2018)

  • iam: Narratives of the Holocaust – ReflectSpace, Glendale, CA (2017-2018)

  • Dis/exists – PhotoRom, in collaboration with Lucie Foundation and Month of Photography in LA (2016)

  • SouthEast Museum of Photography – Daytona Beach, Florida

  • Armory Center for the Arts – Pasadena, California

  • Downey Museum of Art – Downey, California

  • Museum of Contemporary Art – Yerevan, Armenia

  • Caroline Tufenkian Fine Arts – Glendale, California

Grants & Fellowships

  • California Council on the Humanities Grant (2018, 2006, 2001)

  • Open Society Institute, Moving Walls Exhibition Grant (2010)

  • Calouste Gulbenkian Armenian Communities Grant (2015)

  • Ignatius Foundation Grant (2004, for Traces of Identity)

Publications & Features

  • "Father Land" – Visions Magazine, China (2015)

  • "Traces of Identity" – GUP Magazine #37, Los Angeles (2013)

  • "Reading Father Land" – Passages blog (2011)

  • Featured in LA Times, LA Weekly, Artillery Art Magazine, Hyperallergic, Curbed LA

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