Riverside Gallery presents the works of Diana Soorikian, who has been painting figures in an abstracted manner since the 1970s. Her style and language are reminiscent of the British painter Francis Bacon, and some of her works could also be mistaken for Alice Neel’s, in terms of the color palette and the abstract application of colors and brush strokes. Chalky white often predominates her figures, giving them clown-like auras of a cynical circus or a phantasmagoria. The forms of the figure or the face float in or occupy an abstract space of color, which are usually deeply saturated and forces the viewer’s eye to shift focus to the figures which usually are made of white or neutral colors. The overall result is a fantastical feeling that the figures, often of babies and children, are wearing a mask-like layer of makeup and acting as if in a circus or a movie set. On one hand, Soorikian appears to comment on the dark nature of humanity and the calculative ways that the children’s psychology develops, leading to the growth of selfish adults (who ruin the climate and exploit the Earth’s resources). On the other hand, the imagery of children suffering in anguish and poverty in the third world and among the refugees could be extracted from her paintings as well.

About Diana Soorikian:

Diana Soorikian received her BFA from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and her MFA from Columbia University. Soorikian has been an active member of the art scene in the tri-state area; for example, she exhibited and won an award at the Silvermine in Connecticut in 1972, and she also received the Purchase Prize from the New Jersey State Museum in 1974. She regularly exhibited at the Viridian Artists in NYC until 2014. Since 1985, Soorikian was an adjunct professor of cultural history at the Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Artist Statement:

"The human body, without narrative or locale, dominates my painting. I welcome the struggle between the opposites of figuration and and the imperatives of paint. The boy babies are from my "Putti" series. Putti, the angels who appear endearingly in many sacred paintings of the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque eras, were idealized in their beauty and innocence. My babies are the antithesis of those cherubim; mine assert, demand and control. Crouching in feral anticipation, they hint of the men they might become. The scale of these paintings is larger than life, hopefully capturing the angst of expression and the tension of posture."

"The modular paintings consist of panels fitting together to form an implied whole. Each unit depicts an image, simplified and totemic in its isolation, yet integral to the whole. The viewer enters this maze from any single unit, moving in chess like fashion. Unlike chess there are no rules of the game; one can move, pause, jump as one wishes. The subject matter of these installations comes from the recesses of memory or the preoccupations of the moment."

Statements by critics:

Helen Harrison, NY Times....."In contrast, the huge grimacing head by Miss Soorikian's mother, Diana Soorikian, distills all the anguish of a Munch scream. The head hovers like a restless ghost, eyes glazed and teeth bared,in what is obviously not a literal rendition of outward appearance. The probing and revelation that such a portrait represents cannot fail to move the viewer."

Critic Byron Coleman....''Soorikian's images are brave for their very lack of sentimentality; beautiful for their strong delineation of form and elegantly painted, with their combination of dark and strident hues, articulate strokes and well placed drips that dribble like tantrum tears down the authoritatively articulated surfaces of her canvasses."

https://www.newjerseystage.com/articles/getarticle2.php?titlelink=riverside-gallery-presents-the-works-of-diana-soorikian082023