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.

Manet @ Royal Academy

April 2, 2013.Reading time 5 minutes.

Manet. One of the most famous of the impressionists is the subject of a new display at the Royal Academy which focuses on the artist’s portraits for the first time. The show set high expectations, yet I was left a little disappointed. The Royal Academy begins with a self portrait of Edouard Manet. It is […]

Anna Karenina @ Ham House

March 28, 2013.Reading time 1 minute.

Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina is one of my favourite books. When the film starring Keira Knightley and Aaron Taylor-Johnson was announced I was beyond excited to see it. Unfortunately, I was left disappointed and felt that it would have served better as a silent movie. Joe Wright’s interpretation was visually stunning but the script was lacklustre. […]

Dior @ Harrods

March 23, 2013.Reading time 2 minutes.

The windows of Harrods have been taken over by Raf Simon’s SS12 collection for Dior. His debut collection for the brand is seen on mannequins posing in telephone boxes, under soft grey flags and awnings. This external display is a precursor to a fabulous exhibition of Dior couture on the fourth floor of the world […]

Chuck Close @ White Cube

March 18, 2013.Reading time 3 minutes.

Over 150 images spanning the last 40 years are currently adorning the White Cube’s walls. These prints comprise huge portraits which stare out at you. They are hyper-real, lifelike and unidealised. They are so realistic they look like photographs. But they aren’t. Portrait artist Chuck Close suffered a spinal aneurysm in 1988 yet looking at […]

Lichtenstein @ Tate Modern

March 11, 2013.Reading time 6 minutes.

Benday dots, heavy black outlines and primary colours. The Tate Modern has been taken over by an impressive retrospective of Roy Lichtenstein’s work which will have you yearning for your childhood comic books . The show documents the artists career from its very beginnings explaining his break away from abstract expressionism to the cartoon imagery […]