EMILY ARTINIAN
  • Emily artinian




I make artist’s books, ​text based art, installations,​and audience participation works, with a focus on narrative and storytelling. Areas of focus have included Occupy Wall Street, the city of Wilmington, Delaware, and the complex relationships we have with material objects and ownership. 

In 2011 I founded Street Road, a project space developed from my family's former real estate business. This is focused on exploring intersections between art and ownership, particularly of land, buildings, and space. It is also meant to push toward a horizon of collective ownership, or, even better, non-ownership of property.

Current work incorporates ancestors, father-daughter relationships, Armenianness, willful forgetting, trans-species love, and stealing.
COLLECTIONS

Artists books and book objects by E Artinian are held by:
  • Tate Britain, Special Collections
  • Victoria and Albert National Art Library Special Collections
  • Art Institute of Chicago, Flaxman Library, Artist Book Collection
  • CalPoly, Kennedy Library, Special Collections
  • UCLA Arts Library, Artist Book Collection
  • Otis College of Art & Design, Artist Book Collection
  • UC Berkeley, Environmental Design Library
  • University of Denver, Penrose Library, Special Collections
  • Carnegie-Mellon Unviersity, Library, Special Collections
  • DePaul University, Richardson Library, Special Collections
  • Denison University, Doane Library, Special Collections
  • Emory University, Woodruff Library, Special Collections
  • IUPUI Herron Art Library, Artist Book Collection
  • Michigan State University Library, Special Collections
  • SCAD, Atlanta Campus Library, Special Collections
  • Scripps College, Denison Library, Special Collections
  • UC Irvine, Langson Library, Special Collections
  • UC Santa Barbara Davidson Library, Special Collections
  • UC San Diego, Geisel Library, Special Collections
  • University of Iowa, Main Library, Special Collections
  • University of Miami, Richter Library, Special Collections
  • University of Southern California, Doheny Library, Special Collections
  • University of Vermont, Baily/Howe Library, Special Collections
  • Wellesley College, Clapp Library, Special Collections
  • Wesleyan University, Olin Library, Special Collections
  • Yale University, Haas Arts Library, Special Collections 
  • Queens College Library, Special Collections
  • Lewis and Clark College Library,  Special Collections
  • Indiana University, Arts Library
  • Lafayette College, Skillman Library
  • Ringling School of Art & Design
  • Southern Connecticut State Library
  • Louisiana State University, Hill Library
  • University of Chicago
  • UCLA, Young Research
  • UC, Santa Cruz, Special Collections  
  • University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee
  • Williams College, Chapin Library
  • New York Public Library, Schomberg Center

​
TALKS, LECTURES, ARTICLES 

Presentation on own practice at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Art Salad lecture series, Wilmington, Delaware, February 27, 2014

From Ararat to anywhere? A review of the reception history of ‘From Ararat to Angeltown’ in the Armenian Diaspora
presented at: The International Conference on the Armenian Diaspora, Boston University (13-14 February 2010)

Wikipedia definitions of the artist’s book: a neutral point of view?
presented at: Traditional and emerging formats of artists’ books: Where do we go from here?

The School of Creative Arts, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK July 2009

Allen Ruppersberg is Everywhere published in The Blue Notebook Vol 3, No 2 (April 2009)

The oceanic page: Wikipedia and the artists book
presented at:The Liquid Page conference Tate Britain (June 2008)

‘Who cares where the apostrophe goes? Non/participation in the artist’s book entry on Wikipedia’ published in The Blue Notebook (Spring 2008)


AWARDS/GRANTS
  • Armenian Center for Contemporary and Experimental Art (2004/2005)
  • British Council (2004)
  • Arts Council England (2003)


DESIGN
Includes graphic design for the BBC and Channel 4, liveried London taxi design for EUREX, the German stock exchange, and design for UK events company, Vamp.


TEACHING

2016-2021
Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, BA Fine Art Course

2003-2010
Senior Lecturer
Chelsea College of Art and Design Foundation

2006-2008
Senior Lecturer
Byam Shaw College of Art and Design
Central Saint Martins


FAIRS
​
Various artists book Fairs 2000-present: Codex - San Francisco, Bristol Artists Books Exhibition (BABE) - Bristol, Small Publishers Fair - London, First Annual Manchester Artists' Books Fair, London Artists Books at the ICA
EDUCATION 

Columbia University 
BA Russian Language and Literature (1992)

Yale University
MA Slavic Languages and Literatures (1995)

Apprenticeship, Peter Kruty Editions 
Letterpress studio, New York (1997-98)

Camberwell College of Art, London
MA Book Arts with Distinction (2000)

Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching, Centre for Learning and Teaching in Art and Design – University of the Arts London (2008)


EXHIBITIONS, PROJECTS, ETC.

Street Road Artists Space, Founder and Director, 2011-present

Accident - DCCA Studio Artists group exhibition Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, June 6-29, 2014

Binding Desire, Unfolding Artists Books OTIS College of Art and Design, Ben Maltz Gallery, Los Angeles,  January 25 - March 24, 2014

Found The Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, February 7-26, 2014

(un)titled, Film Brothers, Wilmington, DE November 1-21, 2013

King St. Stephen Museum Fifth International Artists' Book Exhibition Székesfehérvár, Hungary May 18 - October 31, 2013  

Fish Tales The Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Wilmington, Delaware, September 5 - 30, 2012

Artist's Flip Books Group exhibition at The Library at Centre Pompidou, Paris, October 2009

New Wave, Group exhibition, School of Creative Arts, University of the West of England, Bristol, 15-19 September 2009

BOOK It, Group exhibition, The Herron Art Library and Harrison Art Center, Indianapolis, Indiana (August 2008).
The Herron Art Library Artist Book Video, YouTube, August 2008

Voulu / obligé - Outskirts of a small contradiction Group exhibition by Underconstruction in the Krossing Pavilion, a collateral event of the 53rd Venice Biennial, Forte Marghera, Venice, Italy (05 June to 15 October 2009)

ThisPlaced: virtual - real - in between 
An Underconstruction exhibition in the City Gallery of Tallinn, Estonia (11 February to 01 March 2009)

The High Window, by Emily Artinian and 29 Readers published in the London serial White Collar (July 2009)

Panorama of books of Western artists from Matisse to the 21st century group exhibition Museum of Art and History, Taipei, Taiwan: organised by immanence (June 2007)

Underconstruction visual dialogue: Talking about identities in the Armenian Transnation
Curators: Silvina Der-Meguerditchian & Barbara Höffer. Group exhibition in the Monastic Headquarters of the Mekhitarian Order, Isola di San Lazzaro degli Armeni
Venice, Italy (9 June to 14 October 2007, concurrent with the Venice Biennale)

Regenerator altered books project Off-Centre Gallery, Bristol (25th April - 11th May Spring 2007)

KIOSK – traveling archive of artists books, at various venues, including Artists Space, New York in 2007, the Emily Carr Institute, Vancouver and SF MoMA in 2006, Witte de With, Rotterdam, and the Institute for Contemporary Art, London in 2005

Bookarts Feature, How2 online poetry journal (Summer 2006)

Sitting Room, group traveling exhibition showing in various venues, including Altsagar Arts Centre, Manchester Craft and Design Centre (Jun-Jul 2006), and the Permanent Gallery Brighton (Jan/Feb 2007), The Enschede Academy of Visual Arts, The Netherlands, Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge, K Gallery, Alameda, California, and Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico City, Mexico

FACTION: Collected Works exhibition at University of West England, Bristol (May 2006)

Tate Britain workshop, Abstraction and Representation in the Artist’s Book (June 2006)

FACTION at Arnolfini Gallery bookshop, Bristol (May/Jun 2006)

underconstruction Online visual dialogue at www.underconstructionhome.net (monthly contributions throughout 2006, 2007)

Sense: Absence FACTION exhibition at Clerkenwell Green Association, London (10-11/2005)

Gartal Cornelia St Cafe, New York : Launch of From Ararat to Angeltown (10/2005)

Illuminated Manuscripts: a Contemporary Matenadaran Curator, exhibition of artist's books by UK and US artists, Armenian Center for Contemporary & Experimental Art, Yerevan, Armenia (08/2004)

Artist’s Residency: Armenian Center for Contemporary & Experimental Art, Yerevan, Armenia (07-08/2004)

Constructing Reality Group show with FACTION at Foyles Gallery, London (02/2004)

Obviously, no one expects to discover anything  Group show at Foyles Gallery, London. Exhibitor and co-curator (07/2001)

Made in Southwark/Southwark Festival (Autumn 2000)

Illuminating Manuscripts, RK Burt Gallery, London - exhibitor and curator (07/2000)


  • Emily artinian