Biography
Born in Beirut in 1972 to famous Armenian, Lebanese modernist Paul Guiragossian, Manuella Guiragossian grew up surrounded by people with a passion for art and culture. Having graduated with a BFA in film and video, specialising in character animation, from the California Institute of the Arts in 2002, today Guiragossian is renowned for her colourful acrylic paintings characterised by a playful and cartoonish aesthetic. A large body of her work is based on her childhood, collected by her father and kept in his studio. The desire to revisit the naïve art of her childhood is driven by a political impulse. In the artist’s words, “a child’s imagination and unconscious is so strong and honest that there is no need to use symbolism to covey an idea… This is why I constantly try to tap back into my childhood self, to create the world which is the only place where I could find refuge from the ugly realities we are surrounded by on a daily basis.” Guiragossian has exhibited in numerous galleries around the world including her native Lebanon, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Oman, Singapore, Amsterdam, North America and France.
Artwork
