About Artist

Nona Gabrielyan is a multigenre artist whose creative field includes ceramics, small–form bronze sculpture, painting, graphics, as well as literature – prose and poetry. Her art is a bridge between tradition and experiment, a dialogue between form and emotion, embodied in plasticity, line, color, and shape.

Her life, like her creations, is composed of three major stages, each leaving an indelible mark on her artistic language. From the cultural polyphony of Tbilisi to a deep immersion in the Armenian school of monumental art, from her creative explorations in Yerevan to international recognition in Europe—this journey has shaped a master whose art transcends national borders.

Tbilisi (1944–1963)
Nona Gabrielyan was born in 1944 in Tbilisi, a city where Eastern and Western cultures had coexisted in delicate balance for centuries. Her childhood in this multilayered cultural space awakened in her a desire for art.

Drawing became her natural language, a means of understanding the world. After leaving with honors from School No. 66, she made a life-changing decision—to move to Armenia and pursue art professionally. This step opened a new chapter ﬁlled with the search for form, meaning, and artistic voice.

Yerevan (1963–1992)
In 1963, Gabrielyan entered the Yerevan State Institute of Fine Arts and Theater, where she studied sculpture and ceramics under Professor R. L. Simonyan. Even during her student years, her works stood out for their high level of execution, and her diploma project was selected for exhibition at the 1968 “Best Diploma Works of the USSR” show at the Leningrad Academy of Arts.

In 1971, Gabrielyan became a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR and actively participated in exhibitions in Moscow, Leningrad, and Yerevan. Her solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art of Armenia (1980) established her as one of the prominent masters of her time.

Her artistic language during this period was formed at the intersection of the Armenian monumental tradition and avant-garde plastic thinking. Her works reﬂect a strict architectonics of form, a deep connection to history, and a vibrant, expressive energy.

Alongside her creative work, she engaged in teaching and art criticism. She taught at the Pedagogical Institute and worked as an art historian at the Art Fund of Armenia. She participated in the creation of monumental and decorative projects in Yerevan, Yeghegnadzor, Konakovo, and other cities of the USSR.

However, the late 1980s brought a turning point: the collapse of the Soviet Union, war, social and economic crises. Art could no longer exist under the same conditions, and the artist decided to begin a new chapter abroad.

Wiesbaden (1992–2022)
In 1992, Nona Gabrielyan was granted freelancer status and, together with artist Van Soghomonyan, opened the “Atelier V&N” gallery in Wiesbaden. This marked the beginning of a new period ﬁlled with international projects, teaching, and profound artistic experimentation.

The ﬁrst ﬁfteen years were marked by intensive exhibitions in Wiesbaden, Frankfurt, Cologne, Berlin, Halle, Fürstenwalde, Bergheim, Walluf, and Paris.

Since 1999, Gabrielyan has been a member of the International Academy of Ceramics KERAMOS (Warsaw).

1999 – Residency at Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France.

Key exhibitions during this period include:

1993: Kurhaus – Galerie Hygieia, Wiesbaden, Germany

2000: Solo exhibition at Art Present Gallery, Paris, France

2008: Exhibition at the National Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan

2012: “The world in the color” exhibition at Kurhaus Christian-Zais-Saal, Wiesbaden, Germany

2016: “Between the heaven and the earth” at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Yerevan, Armenia

Her work in Germany becomes a bridge between European modernism and Eastern traditions. Color acquires symbolic meaning, and forms – expressive freedom, but they still feel connected to Armenian roots.

From 2004 to 2021, Gabrielyan taught at the Akademie für Ältere VHS (Wiesbaden) and conducted workshops with her students in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Armenia, and Croatia.

Her works are housed in the National Gallery of Armenia (Yerevan), the Yerevan Museum of Modern Art, the Ethnographic Museum of Sardarapat (Armenia), the Keramion Museum in Frechen (Germany), the State Museum of Oriental Art in Moscow, and the All-Russian Museum of Decorative Arts in Moscow.

In addition to visual art, Nona Gabrielyan explores the philosophy of creativity through the written word. Her books, such as “Tender Clouds of Sadness” (2013), “The Magic of Solitude” (2017), and “Unforgettable” (2024), are ﬁlled with subtle reﬂections on the nature of time, art, and the human soul. Her poetry collections—”Shards of the Sky” (2003), “The Touch” (2006), “From Nowhere” (2007), and “The Color of the Word” (2010)—serve as a continuation of her artistic method, where form and content merge into a harmonious whole.

Nona Gabrielyan is an artist as well as a cultural ambassador for Armenia. During the three decades that she and her late husband Van Soghomonyan lived in Germany, their Wiesbaden “Kunts-Atelier V&N” was a reference point for artists, students, and art lovers. From 1995 she taught painting and graphics and had master classes, educating over 55 aspiring artists. Many of them travelled with her to Armenia, learned about its people and culture, and painted monuments and landscapes of her country. As Nona Gabrielyan put it, “Art is a universal language, especially painting and music! Everyone can understand it, without translation.” In this spirit, she has exhibited not only her own works in Germany but included works of her students and has promoted independent shows for young artists. Art, the language of cultural dialogue for Nona Gabrielyan, also includes literature. Over the years she has published many works of poetry and short stories with illustrations, in Russian, Armenian, and German as well. As she often says, “An artist belongs to the whole world and the whole world belongs to the artist.” Nona Gabrielyan is such an artist.

Muriel Mirak-Weißbach

Author and correspondent for the Armenian Mirror-Spectator