Mireille Goguikian

Mireille Goguikian is a Lebanese-Armenian painter born in Beirut, in 1964. She is known for her colorful semi-abstract paintings of the city. Her work encompasses pastel drawings, oil paintings, and mixed media. She first joined the Interior Architecture Program at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA) before switching to the Arts Plastiques section following the encouragement of her professor Nicole Harfouche. Thanks to the teaching of the famous painter Paul Guiragossian, Goguikian had the opportunity to improve her painting skills and gain knowledge of art history. She achieved her first recognitions before graduating. In 1987, she won the 2nd Prize of the Bachir Gemayel competition with the topic of L'artisanat libanais for her work—a pastel drawing of three women sitting on their knees weaving a tapestry. In 1988, she graduated from ALBA and also won the Samir Tabet Prize. In 1990, while learning Italian in Italy, Goguikian became fascinated by Italian architecture, particularly the arcades—an element that has become recurrent in Gogukian's paintings. Then, she moved to Paris where she remained until 1995 where she attended the atelier libre at Académie de la Grande Chaumière and got married to the architect Charly Dabbaghian (1991). Alongside her career, Goguikian has been engaged in educational activities in various institutions in Lebanon. She taught at the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), at ALBA and at the Toros Roslin Academy. Currently, she teaches Interior design at the Saints-Coeurs Technical College in Bauchrieh, Lebanon. Goguikian’s background in architecture is perceptible in her work which translates specific circumstances and the emotions that come along through symbolism and the geometry of the city. In the early years of her career, between 1988 and 1990, she painted Beirut destroyed during the Civil War (1975-1990) from a very close point of view. Beirut remains her main reference, her inspiration, but from the start of the 1990s, the city is painted from a distant point of view and emerges as a tight net of buildings. It loses the illusive and dramatic traits, to enter a more graphic aesthetic. In the 2000s, Goguikian started to develop the aesthetic she became known for. By using oil paint and a palette knife, she transformed her cities into unfolded landscapes? yellow being the prevalent color, giving a warm tone to the painting. Yellow has both a spiritual and formal dimension. It represents light for Gogukian, both in the physical sense and in the sense of faith. After the explosion at Beirut port on the 4th of August 2020, she painted in 2021 a series of seven paintings under the name of Éclats de Beyrouth which were exhibited at the XIII Biennale in Florence and earned her the Jury Prize. Goguikian's numerous national and international exhibitions, her membership in associations showcase her deep engagement in the art world and her eagerness to use art as a communication tool. Her body of work offers a sensorial experience of the city through it shapes, colors and light.