Working between Australia and Armenia, Vigen Galstyan is an art historian and curator specialising in photography, film and Armenian art of the modern era. In 2011 he co-founded ‘Lusadaran’ Armenian Photography Foundation, which aims to collect, study and preserve photo-media art from Armenia and beyond (www.lusadaran.org).
Since 2006 he has authored numerous exhibitions, essays and books related to photography and Armenian art, including the first ever survey devoted to Armenian film poster art at the National Gallery of Armenia. From 2010-12 Vigen held the position of assistant curator photographs at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
His exhibition projects include: Industrial Symphony: photography and the post-industrial age (2010, Armenian centre of experimental arts, Yerevan), Kamo Nigarian: Protoforms (2011, Yerevan Museum of Modern Art), Flatlands: photography and everyday space (2012, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney), Samvel Saghatelyan: Transromance (Lusadaran, Yerevan, 2013), Female trouble: photography and the construction of femininity (Lusadaran and Hayart centre of contemporary art, Yerevan, 2014), Nazik Armenakyan: Survivors (2015, travelling exhibition and photobook), Kamo Nigarian: Schizopolis (2015, Cafesjian Center for the Arts, Yerevan) and others. In 2016, under Vigen’s direction, ‘Lusadaran’ realized the first scientific database devoted to the history of Armenian photographic arts.
His essays on photography and cinema have appeared in significant publications such as Sweet sixties (Sternberg Press, 2013), We used to talk about love (Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney, 2013) and Garden of the East: photography in Indonesia 1850s-1940s (National Gallery, Canberra, 2014).
Vigen has completed a BA in film and media productions in the University of Technology, Sydney, and an MA in Art Curatorship at the University of Sydney where he is currently completing his PhD thesis on indigenous, 19th century Armenian photography of historic architecture. Alongside his academic and curatorial work, Vigen continues his creative practice and has directed a number of short films and documentaries since 2005.