Author: Lizzy Vartanian Collier

Lizzy Vartanian Collier is a London-based writer and curator. She is the founder of Gallery Girl - a London-based curatorial platform and website dedicated to modern and contemporary art from across the globe. Her work is primarily focused on supporting emerging female artists from the Middle East and the Caucasus. She has written for Canvas Magazine, Harper's Bazaar Arabia, Ibraaz, Jdeed Magazine, Suitcase and Vice Arabia among other publications. Her exhibitions in London and Armenia have been featured in Vogue Arabia, The Art Newspaper, The Art Gorgeous and numerous other news outlets. Gallery Girl has also spoken in the UK, UAE and Belgium about the contemporary art scene in the MENA region, and is planning further events in London and Amman.

Grace Wales Bonner @ Serpentine

February 6, 2019.Reading time 9 minutes.

Breath the air of those brave ancestors; They were ladders to new worlds – Ben Okri In Old English, a shrine is the word used for a cabinet, chest or reliquary – i.e. a container for holy relics. In contemporary society, a shrine is more often associated with a holy place, marked by a building […]

Twin @ The Store X

January 30, 2019.Reading time 6 minutes.

“Art” does not always appear on walls. In fact, for the grand majority of “artists”, their “artworks” are not displayed on gallery walls or on plinths inside grand institutions until they have struggled through many years of working to establish themselves as “artists.” At this point, you might ask yourself what constitutes an “artist”? Must […]

Art in Translation

January 23, 2019.Reading time 8 minutes.

Being a native English speaker in the art world is something many of us take for granted. At fairs, openings and screenings across the globe, the presentations and supporting text is nearly always in English. On the odd occasion that it isn’t, it will almost undoubtedly be translated or interpreted for Anglophone viewers, but why? […]

Katja Seib @ Sadie Coles

January 16, 2019.Reading time 7 minutes.

An apple and a snake: two motifs synonymous with Adam and Eve’s rebellion in the Garden of Eden. The Christian doctrine of the original sin – i.e. the consumption of the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil – is described in the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible. In […]

Fernando Botero @ Custot

January 9, 2019.Reading time 9 minutes.

Round orbs of orange-yellow fruit rest on top of a fuchsia textile, situated before a peach background. The spheres are excessively plump. It is as though they have been aerated and, if one were to accidentally drop onto the ground, it would not be surprising if the ball bounced right up onto the table’s surface […]

Gallery Girl meets Mai Al Moataz

January 2, 2019.Reading time 9 minutes.

I decompose like a rose, and rot from the inside before out. – Mai Al Moataz The rose is probably the most delicate and symbolic flower. An emblem of love, affection and beauty, it is most often associated with a romantic sentiment. But the rose is also fragile, and its polished exterior can sometimes mask a […]

Gallery Girl: Best of 2018

December 27, 2018.Reading time 8 minutes.

To put it mildly, the past year has been explosive for Gallery Girl. On the blog, Gallery Girl has covered contemporary art exhibitions in both Europe and the Middle East, while also interviewing artists, curators and other leading art-world figures from across the globe. Offline, Gallery Girl has made her presence known through exhibitions in […]