IMAGE ‘N WORDS
SARÉ
Oils and Etchings
NORA ARMANI
Poems and Scribblings

Opening Reception and Performance:
Saturday, September 6th, 2008, 6 - 8 pm (20min. performance at 7pm)
Gallery Hours and Performance:
Sunday, September 7th, 2008, 3 -5 pm (20min. performance at 4pm)

What do two Armenian women from Paris have in common? At first sight, nothing!

One paints, the other writes; one comes from Armenia, the other from the Diaspora (Egypt); one designs sets, the other acts. They meet in 1991 on the set of the first independent feature film to be shot in Armenia following the country’s independence after break up of the Soviet Union. Their meeting generates a first collaboration in 1993 at the Gallerie Les Cents in Paris where they are both living at the time and experiencing rootless-ness while searching for their ‘selves’. One searched through shapes and colors, the other with letters and punctuations.

Poems to be hanged on walls and paintings that speak so loud they can be heard miles away. One speaks in images, the other paints in words… They find each other; they inspire each other…

But their lives diverge once more, as lives tend to do, despite geographic proximity. One frequents famous galleries with her paintings and the other continues her journey into films and stage.

This year marks their second collaboration after a 15-year break. Has it really been that long? This time they meet again in New York, in the US, where they both spend a part of the year, one more the other less, with Paris always on their horizon…

POMEGRANATE GALLERY lends walls to their imaginations and offers us all the opportunity to see these two artists’ words and to hear their colorful images full of drama, humor and life.


THE ARTISTS
Saré and Nora Armani met on the set of the feature film Deadline in Seven Days in Armenia where Saré was the Art Director and Nora Armani was the lead actress. They have previously collaborated in Paris, France at the Gallerie Les Cents, and also appear independently. Saré has exhibited worldwide, specifically in Paris. This opening is in preview of her forthcoming solo shows in Paris in November ’08 and March ’09 respectively. Nora Armani’s poems have been published in books and reviews in the UK and in the US. She has appeared on stage and has been seen on screens worldwide.

SARÉ
Born in 1959 in Yerevan, Armenia, Saré graduated with a diploma from the National Institute of Arts of Yerevan, with a major in Set Design. She worked for a long time as a Set Designer stage and screen, creating costumes and sets for more than 40 theatre shows and several movies in different countries.

She has had painting and graphic works exhibits since the age of 20, first in Armenia and Russia where her career started, then in Europe. She has been living and working in Paris since 1991. The French daily “Figaro” wrote about one of her exhibits in May 2005: “Saré evokes strange characters that remind us of the Middle Ages or the inventions of the great Flemish painters who are fond of the grotesque; a Carnival of creatures one can also imagine out of the pages of Gombrowicz. To be discovered“.

Saré is currently working with 3 galleries in Paris, as well as the “A Muse Gallery” in Columbus, Ohio and in Taos, New Mexico. Her works are part of several private collections and museums. Meet the Artist : http://evgsare.free.fr.

NORA ARMANI
With an international list of theatre and film credits to her name, Nora Armani’s acclaimed award-winning self-penned stage appearances as an actor include: On the Couch with Nora Armani (now on DVD), Sojourn At Ararat (with Gerald Papasian) (now on CD), Nannto Nannto and Snowflakes in April in addition to her other TV (Casualty-BBC, Al Asdiquaa-EgyptTV), Film (The New Eve, Last Station-co-directed, Haifa and Labyrinth-for which she won the Best Actress award) and Stage (Beyond the Veil, The Lover, La Fete Virile) credits. Films produced by Nora have been seen at the Berlin, Rotterdam and Cannes film festivals. Her stage productions have toured internationally in their English and French versions over 4 continents garnering awards and accolades.

Nora recently co-produced and launched with Founder Al Nazemian, the First Annual Noor Play Festival of Middle East themed plays at the Wings Theatre in New York, directing two of the plays in the program. She has also produced and curated numerous film exhibits and film festival screenings in London (at Cine Lumière, ICA, Saddlers’ Wells, British Museum), Paris (Pompidou Centre), Los Angeles (AFI, Silver Lake Film Fest.) and Washington, D.C. (Kennedy Center) to name a few.

Nora Armani has graduated with a B.A. in English and Sociology from AUC (The American University in Cairo), and holds an M.Sc. from LSE (Univ. of London). Her theatre training includes: RADA, UCLA, Theatre du Soleil and Complicity Theatre, in addition to a number of noteworthy master classes and workshops, including Yoshi Oyda and Irina Brook. Nora is an Honorary Member of the National Theatre of Armenia. She is a published poet and playwright. Meet the poet/performer: www.noraarmani.com

THE GALLERY
Oded Halahmy, an Iraqi American sculptor and thirty-seven year resident of SoHo, founded the Pomegranate Gallery as a catalyst for international artistic dialogue. Exhibitions will continue to feature innovative contemporary art from all of the countries of the Middle East. In addition to contemporary visual art, he has featured readings by authors and poets, as well as musical performances, dance and film. “Although we are all from different ethnic groups, our objective is to encourage all forms of art as an effective long-term means of fostering the peace dialogue. If we all recognize that the arts can be a powerful unifier of disparate cultures, the chance for peace in Iraq, the Middle East, and around the world will be greatly enhanced,” says Halahmy.

The gallery is supported in part by the Oded Halahmy Foundation for the Arts, a 501(c)(3) non-profit cultural organization created to fund original artistic expressions that will promote a greater cultural understanding of the Middle East, thereby fostering peace and hope around the world. The Foundation has already supported a number of Middle Eastern writers and artists by introducing their works to the American audience.