Rafael Megall

Rafael Megall was born in 1983 in Yerevan. He started to paint when he was 9 years old. Between 1998 and 2004, he studied in Yerevan State Academy of Fine Arts. Since 2010 he lives and works in Armenia and USA. Starting from 1995, he has had numerous individual expositions, as well as has participated in a number of international exhibitions.

 

In 2012 he received Gold Medal of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Armenia for his services and achievement. In 2013 the President of Armenia gave him the honorary title of “Honored Artist of the Republic of Armenia”. In 2013 Florence Biennale IX Edition he received The Lorenzo il Magnifico Award in the category of "painting". In 2014 he granted the "Arshil Gorky" honorable Medal of Republic of Armenia.

 

The colors of the landscape, presented in sharp, electric and vibrant segments, produce contrasts that recall the saturation of a digital image. In order to emphasize this visual effect and to adapt it to the language of painting, in addition to acrylics, Megall uses watercolors, which lighten as they absorb and expand the colors through moist sifts. The expedient creates an out-of-focus effect, which causes the colors of the objects to blend, giving life to a unique body. While, in a sense, the psychedelic effect that, in these works, derives from the combination of these colors and from their saturation alludes to the idealism of the Sixties and the dream of finding a place where it is possible to live in harmony with nature, the dense and redundant intertwining of the decorations that permeate the canvas produce a visual noise that prevents the landscape to be perceived as an oasis of peace.