Gagik Vardanyan (GaGo)
The Born in Yerevan, Armenia in 1960, Gagik Vardanyan—known as GaGo—is an artist shaped by movement, memory, and the quiet conversation between cultures. Formally trained at the National Academy of Fine Arts, from which he graduated in 1985, his early years were guided by classical discipline and the influence of prominent Armenian and Russian masters.
At fourteen, painting became more than a practice—it became a lifelong dialogue. Drawn first to Eastern art, philosophy, and literature, GaGo absorbed their meditative depth and spiritual restraint. Later, the great European artists expanded his vision, opening new paths of expression, experimentation, and freedom.
In 1999, GaGo’s journey carried him to Buenos Aires. There, in the pulse of the city and the poetry of Latin American culture, his work transformed. Surrounded by writers, thinkers, and artists, he discovered a new rhythm—one infused with movement, passion, and the layered energy of a multicultural world. Buenos Aires left its imprint not only on his palette, but on the emotional architecture of his work.
Since 2018, California has become his creative home. Inspired by its landscapes, light, and cultural diversity, GaGo continues to explore abstraction as a living, breathing language. From this chapter emerged expansive series such as Motion, Impressions of California, and Urban Flower—works that unfold through gesture, color, and quiet intensity.
For GaGo, painting is an act of openness. An artist, he believes, must welcome change, embrace new philosophies, and allow lived experience to pass freely through the creative process. Only then can art remain alive—capable of surprise, resonance, and truth.
As art critic Peter Frank writes:
“GaGo is not unusual in having many artists inside him; he is unusual in letting so many of them out, and regarding them all as equally authentic.”
GaGo’s paintings are not fixed destinations, but journeys—inviting the viewer to feel motion, sense memory, and discover meaning within abstraction itself.
