Artist Arthur Elbakyan Opens Color Therapy Exhibition in Yerevan

Arthur Elbakyan, an Armenian artist and playwright, recently opened his exhibition "Color Therapy" at the Armenian Artists' Union in Yerevan. The artist describes his creative process as driven by inner necessity rather than professional ambition, often working through the night in silence with cognac and canvas. Elbakyan's artistic journey began while writing a play called "My Crazy Shakespeare" for New York's Mono Festival, in which the protagonist paints while confined to a psychiatric hospital. The actor-author then began painting himself, immersing into his character's psychology. Shaped by his childhood in Kond, Yerevan's historic district, and guided by his grandmother and theater instructor Khoren Abrahamyan, Elbakyan eventually founded Theater 13 on Pushkin Street as an independent creative space, rejecting institutional constraints.