Author: Lizzy Vartanian Collier

Lizzy Vartanian Collier aka Gallery Girl is a writer and curator based in London. Her work has been featured in publications including Dazed, Hyperallergic and Vogue Arabia. She was curator of Perpetual Movement during AWAN Festival 2018 and in 2019 had a residency at the Lab at Darat Al Funun in Amman, Jordan. She has also worked with Armenia Art Fair for its inaugural edition and previously worked as an editor at I.B.Tauris Publishers. In 2019 she co-founded Arsheef, Yemen’s first contemporary art gallery. She has given workshops at Manara Culture in Amman, Jordan and Victoria and Albert Museum in London, UK. As of 2020 she is currently in law school, with the ambition of greater understanding the intersection between art and the law.

Anthea Hamilton @ Thomas Dane Gallery

April 25, 2019.Reading time 7 minutes.

Cecil Vyse – one-time fiancé of protagonist Miss Lucy Honeychurch in E.M. Forster’s A Room with a View (1908) – is a pretentious character that perceives himself as a sensitive intellectual, resulting in a sense of obstinate self-awareness and an exaggerated style. In an exhibition filled with butterflies, boots, nudity and tartan, Vyse’s skewed mode […]

Gallery Girl meets AVAH Collective

April 17, 2019.Reading time 8 minutes.

The modern day nation of Afghanistan is located in a geography with a long historical and cultural significance both locally and internationally. Yet how many of Gallery Girl’s readers know anything about Afghan art? I’m guessing that if any, there are very few who do. Most probably think of Afghanistan and immediately make associations with […]

Augustine Paredes @ Campus Art Dubai

April 10, 2019.Reading time 6 minutes.

Leaving home to be a migrant worker in a different country is like cooking Adobo. Different ingredients in one pot, boiled and simmered – simultaneously stirred in different directions and ways, peppered with additional spices – until finally cooked through and ready to be served – Augustine Paredes At this year’s Art Dubai photography based […]

The Thousand and One Nights @ Artual

April 2, 2019.Reading time 5 minutes.

The tale of the One Thousand and One Nights is synonymous with the Middle East. In the story, King Shahryar marries a string of women, murdering them after just one night after discovering that his first wife was unfaithful to him. When his vizier could no longer find any women, his daughter Scheherazade offers herself […]

Gallery Girl meets Ripsy May

March 27, 2019.Reading time 8 minutes.

“This person could really do with a necklace or some boobs” – Ripsy May Artist, musician and zine-creator Ripsy May could be described as a triple threat. Her artwork enchants with the endearing yet mischievous energies her child-like characters emit, while her silky smooth voice provides the basis for songs that touch on love and […]