Nairy Baghramian: Modèle Vivant

Edited with text by Catherine Craft. Foreword by Jeremy Strick. Text by Julie Mehretu, Kate Nesin, Paulina Pobocha. Over the past three decades, Nairy Baghramian has delved into elements of sculptural practice and installation to create works that challenge their settings and upend expected modes of presentation as well as the architectural, sociological, political, and historical contexts that inform them. Baghramian has considered the relation of modeling, molding, and casting—interrelated elements of sculpture production involving positive and negative forms—throughout her career, and she consistently humanizes this largely mechanical process through overt or oblique references to the body.  Using an abstract vocabulary that often combines geometric and organic forms, as well as industrial materials and processes with elements that appear soft and supple, Baghramian highlights the subtle ligatures uniting disparate human activities and the vulnerability of the human body.