Selected Solo Exhibitions

  • 2017Davis Museum at Wellesley College, Wellesley, U.S.
    Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon.
    KADIST, San Francisco, U.S.
  • 2015Fondazione Cari Spezia, La Spezia, Italy.
    Mosaic Rooms, London.
  • 2013Darat al Funun, Amman.
  • 2011SALT Beyoglu, Istanbul.
    Podbielski Contemporary, Berlin.
  • 2010Kalfayan Galleries, Athens.
  • 2008Kalfayan Galleries, Athens.
  • 2007The Museum of Photography of Thessaloniki, Greece.
  • 1998French Institute for Arab Research, Damascus.

Selected Group Exhibitions

  • 2019“Living In The Mediterranean”, Valencian Institute of Modern Art (IVAM), Valencia.
    “Leaving the Echo Chamber”, 14th Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah.
  • 2018“'The New Europe”, Brighton Photo Biennial, Brighton.
    “Video Echoes: Waves From The Eastern Mediterranean”, Counihan Gallery, Brunswick.
    “In The Still Of The Night”, Fotohof, Salzburg.
    “Nonlinear Histories Transgenerational, Memory of Trauma”, Downtown Central Library, Glendale, CA.
  • 2017"Outposts", Glucksman Museum, University College Cork, Ireland.
    “Flatlands”, Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) Manila.
    "Age of Terror", Imperial War Museum, London.
    "La Terra Inquieta", La Triennale di Milano.
    "Disappearance at Sea – Mare Nostrum", Baltic Contemporary Art Centre, Newcastle, UK.
    “Wounded cities. Hyphenated places — hyphenated identities.”, The New School, New York.
    "Make a Change", Norrtälje konsthall, Norrtälje, Sweden.
  • 2016"ATLAS of the ruins OF EUROPE", CentroCentro, Madrid.
    "Built, World", SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia, U.S.
    "Critical Archives I", Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete, Rethymno, Greece
    "Make a Change", Kulturcentrum Ronneby, Sweden
  • 201510th Bamako Encounters, The African Biennial of Photography, Bamako.
    “To What End”, Camera Austria, Graz, Austria.
    “Fire and Forget”, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin.
    “Armenity”, Armenian pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennial, Venice.
    “Sitter”, Columbus College of Art & Desig, Columbus, Ohio, U.S.
  • 2014-2015“Time, Conflict, Photography” Tate Modern, London; and Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany.
  • 2014“Here And Elsewhere”, New Museum, New York.
    “Alienated of every country, unite!”, La Folie, Quebec.
  • 2013“Death of a Cameraman”, Apexart, New York.
    "Here, elsewhere", Friche Belle de Mai, Marseille Capital of Culture, Marseille.
    “Power, Photos, Freedom!”, Foto Museum Antwerp, Belgium.
  • 20127th Asia Pacific Triennial (APT7), Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane.
    Mori Art Museum, Tokyo.
    “Lines of Control” Herbert F Johnson Museum at Cornell University, New York.
  • 2011“Facing Mirrors”, Photography Museum, Thessaloniki, Greece.
    3rd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece.
    Sharjah Biennial 10, Sharjah, UAE.
    “Out of Place”, Tate Modern, London, UK, and Darat al Funun, Amman.
  • 2010“Breaking News” Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena, Modena, Italy.
    21st International Photography Meeting, Thessaloniki, Greece.
  • 2009“Disorientation II” The Rise & Fall of Arab Cities, Abu Dhabi.
    11th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul.
    “Treasures of Wisdom”, ReMap2, Athens.
  • 2008“Visual Arts in Greece III”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece.
    “New Ends, Old Beginnings”, The Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool.
    “Constructio”, Galeria Antonio De Barnola, Barcelona.
  • 2005“Meeting Points”, Amman, Jordan and Damascus.
  • 2004“Voies Off”, Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d’Arles, France.
  • 2003Centre d’Art le Creux de l’enfer, Thiers, France.
  • 2001&2003“Journées de la photographie”, Damascus.
  • 2000&2001International Photographic Gathering, Aleppo.

Bibliography

Awards

  • 2012The Abraaj Group Art Prize, Dubai.
  • 2010Steenbergen Stipendium, Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam.

Works in Collections

  • Utah Museum of Fine Arts
  • Mori Museum, Tokyo.
  • Tate Modern, London.
  • Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena, Modena, Italy.
  • Fondazione Cari Spezia, La Spezia, Italy.
  • Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah.
  • The Khalid Shoman Collection, Amman.
  • The Farjam Collection, Dubai.

Hrair Sarkissian

Hrair Sarkissian is a photographer. Born and raised in Damascus, he earned his foundational training at his father’s photographic studio, where he spent all his childhood vacations and where he worked full-time for twelve years after high school. In 2010 he completed a BFA in Photography at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam. He lives and works in London since 2011.

“I use photography as a way to tell stories that are not immediately visible on the surface. Employing traditional documentary techniques and using a 4×5 analogue camera, my photographic series consist of austere, large-scale images. The constancy and beauty of the settings, however, are at odds with the socio-historical realities that they conceal. Photography is my tool to search for answers related to my personal memories and background, and I use this subjectivity as a way to navigate larger stories that official histories are unable or unwilling to tell. I try to engage the viewer into a more profound reading of what lies behind the surface of the image, thereby re-evaluating larger historical or social narratives. Once people become aware of the invisible elements behind my work, the physicality of the image is almost destroyed. The architecture and surroundings of the execution squares are no more than a backdrop when you see the bodies hanging in your mind; the faces upon which the zebiba is imprinted are no longer individuals; the still darkness of the libraries becomes loaded once you realize what historical complexities these archives cover.”