The Auction

The artwork

Karine Dulyan painted three large canvases inspired by Yerevan, then invited passers-by to add their own drawings, words and wishes directly onto them. Many had never drawn before and could hardly believe they were welcome to mark a professional artist's work — yet within minutes hesitation gave way to joy.

The canvases filled with people, animals, flowers, houses and declarations of love. Almost every contribution spoke of kindness, hope and humour — as if the city were showing the version of itself it hopes to be. Among the participants were actor Mikayel Poghosyan, artist Gagik Ghazanchyan and dozens of Yerevan residents of every generation.

Each panel is at once an original work by the artist and a document of a rare collective moment — its drawings, jokes and small personal stories permanently embedded in the surface.

About the artist

Karine “KARISHOK” Dulyan is a Yerevan-based contemporary artist. Trained as an architect and urban planner, she devoted nearly two decades to architecture before turning fully to painting. Her work has been shown in Armenia, Georgia and the United States, including solo exhibitions at the Arts Club of Washington and the Armenian Arts Center in Los Angeles.

The artwork

An original 70 × 100 cm authored poster by Igor Gurovich, created for Noor — the legendary Moscow cocktail bar and gallery founded in 2010. Built as a collage in Gurovich's unmistakable manner — a vintage pin-up portrait, golden screws, a concert-bill of pub-rock heroes — it continues the line of the Russian avant-garde poster tradition that runs through all of his work. This is an original offset print from an edition of just 50 copies.

The bar's name, Noor (նուռ), is the Armenian word for pomegranate, and since its founding the place has kept warm ties with Armenian culture — down to its signature Pomegranate-tini.

About the artist

Igor Gurovich is one of the defining figures of contemporary graphic design: co-founder of the Moscow design bureau Ostengruppe, author of visual identities for the Moscow International Film Festival and Russia's Olympic team, and a legendary theatre poster artist who has worked with Gogol Center, the Moscow Art Theatre and many others. His posters for the DOM cultural centre became classics of the genre.

Today he lives and works between Yerevan and Moscow, heading the international programme of the HSE Art and Design School in Yerevan — so this lot comes from an artist whose daily life is now woven into the city this evening is for.

The artwork

Busts are Gareggin's most personal, favourite collection — some of its sketches he has kept since childhood. These are not portraits of specific people but collective images: a bust can personify time, a feeling, a state of mind. The series grew after a visit to the Hermitage, and the artist counts his bust paintings among his best works.

Wild (2026) is one of them: canvas, spray and acrylic, 50 × 40 cm — a figure between sculpture and living being, painted in the free, layered manner that connects his street walls and his canvases.

About the artist

Gareggin Harutyunyan (@gareggin_) is a Yerevan artist who moves freely between classical oil painting and street art. His murals can be found on Saryan Street and other streets of the city centre — including a wall facing Martiros Saryan's gallery, where he painted motherhood: a woman in traditional Armenian dress carrying a whole heritage within her. There are Parajanov-inspired pieces of his in the city centre too, and even on the island of Bali he has created a graffiti version of a Saryan canvas — to introduce the master to people who might never have heard of him. He has been drawing since the age of four and dreams of seeing his paintings in the best galleries of New York.

Asked to say one phrase that every Armenian would hear, he answered: “Help each other — hold on tightly to one another.” Hard to think of a better motto for this evening.

The album

Released in 2026, Manifeste is a deeply personal, immersive 14-track journey. Tigran moves through a vivid sonic landscape where modern electronic production meets the spiritual depth of Armenian melody — shifting from cinematic, lyrical piano to powerful avant-garde fusion. It is widely considered one of his most expressive and complete works to date.

About the artist

Tigran Hamasyan is a world-renowned pianist and composer, celebrated for bridging complex jazz improvisation, progressive rock and ancient Armenian folk tradition. His virtuosic technique and boundary-pushing style have made him one of the most innovative and influential musicians of his generation.

The lot

This signed copy is not only a musical record but a tangible piece of art that connects you directly to Tigran’s creative world. A rare item for collectors and music lovers alike. All proceeds go toward the new children’s playground in Stepanavan.

The artwork

“A flower carries the weight of unspoken words inside its petals. It does not bloom toward the sun — it leans toward silence, listening. Every whisper it has ever heard remains there, hidden in the dark, waiting for someone gentle enough to notice.”

— Ashkhen Muradyan

About the artist

Ashkhen Muradyan (@muradyanashkhenn) is a Yerevan-based illustrator and visual artist who works across illustration, ceramics and printmaking.

About the magazine

“Yerevan” (EVN Mag) is an independent Yerevan magazine about the city, culture, people and the ideas shaping contemporary Armenia. Since 2011 it has told the city’s stories through reportage, interviews, photo series and city chronicles — keeping the living rhythm of Yerevan, its faces, places and the small everyday details that add up to a bigger picture.

The prints

The covers are one of the magazine’s signatures: a themed illustration for each issue, created by the best artists of Yerevan. For the auction, EVN Mag presents two cover prints by artists Gegham Vardanyan and Sargis Antonyan. Once the opening of a printed issue, these images now step off the page as objects in their own right — bright, recognisable and very much of Yerevan.

The artwork

Golden apricots scattered across a vivid pink field — warm, playful and unmistakably Yerevan in summer. The print was part of a limited edition made for the 2025 Golden Apricot International Film Festival, where it appeared across the festival’s objects and spaces at the House of Cinema.

About the studio

Losos i Pes (@losos_i_pes) is an illustration studio with a bold, colourful signature — bright palettes, simple forms and a sense of humour that turns everyday things into something joyful.

The experience

A dinner with Mark Grigoryan — journalist, writer and author of “Yerevan. Biography of a City,” the book that reads the capital far beyond any guidebook. The grandson of the architect Mark Grigoryan, who designed the Matenadaran, he carries a rare, layered knowledge of the city: its hidden courtyards, its legends and the myths he so enjoys taking apart.

Expect a warm, free-flowing conversation — the kind of evening where Yerevan opens up through the eyes of someone who has spent a lifetime listening to it.

The setting

The dinner takes place at Asador, a steak, crab and fish restaurant in central Yerevan and one of the evening's partners, who offer the table for this lot.

The experience

A one-of-a-kind, individual visit to the Armenian National Opera and Ballet Theatre — the Alexander Spendiaryan, designed by Alexander Tamanian and opened in 1933, the very stage where Khachaturian's “Gayane” was born. A private guided tour leads you through the parts of the building the public rarely sees.

The evening's heart is a chance to watch a live rehearsal — a real orchestra, or a production taking shape on stage — from the quiet of a private box, where the music rises to meet you.

How it works

The visit is organised by our partner Imagine Tour. The winner arranges the date directly with the theatre, around its rehearsal schedule.

The experience

A hands-on workshop in baking sourdough bread and traditional Armenian gata. You shape the dough, learn the rhythm of a living starter, and finish by scoring the crust with the kind of flowing patterns and faces you can see on these loaves — the part everyone falls in love with. It is unhurried and deeply meditative: a few hours where nothing exists but your hands and the dough.

Choose your day

Two formats are on offer, and the winner picks the one they like: a sourdough & gata workshop in Yerevan or Dilijan, or a sourdough & arishta workshop in Tsaghkunk. You can join one of the regular groups within the year — the next gathering is on 21 June, and then one each month.

How it works

The certificate is for one auction guest. After the evening, the winner simply writes to the workshop and they agree on a date together.

The experience

An individual hand-building workshop in clay. Under the guidance of a master you shape a piece from beginning to end — a bowl, a cup, an object that exists nowhere else. No experience is needed; the master is beside you the whole way. Like baking, it is slow and meditative: just you, your hands and the clay, and the small wonder of watching a form appear under your fingers.

How it works

The certificate is for one auction guest. To arrange it, the winner writes to the studio on Instagram and they agree on a date and time that suits.

The experience

A night for two at Debatoun, a family guesthouse and restaurant in Lori, on Debed street in the village of the same valley. Warm wooden rooms, soft handmade ceramics and lamplight, a garden to sit in and a restaurant surrounded by green — a place made for slowing down. Breakfast is included.

Pet-friendly and family-run, Debatoun is the kind of place you leave the city for: to breathe, to walk, and to feel like a guest in someone's home.

How it works

The certificate is for one night with breakfast. The winner arranges the dates directly with the guesthouse.

The experience

An individual banya programme for two: a self-contained way to rest, where a steam-master sets the humidity and temperature for you and gives a gentle, contactless steaming. It runs for three hours, with the whole space yours — the bathhouse, the veranda, the ice plunge, the dousing bucket and the hay swing.

The first round opens with an aromatic warm-up, using herbs gathered around Hoja Place. After that, steam is brought every half hour and the temperature kept just right. Herbal tea and water throughout, and bathhouse things provided — robe, towel, hat and reusable slippers.

How it works

The certificate is for one programme for two. The winner arranges the date directly with Hoja Place.

The experience

A romantic dinner for two at Puri by Lali, a place built around fire-baked bread and Georgian cooking. Soft light, white linen, clay vessels along the walls and a kitchen that sends out hot puri, melting khachapuri and khinkali — an evening to sit close and let the table fill.

How it works

The certificate is for a dinner for two. The winner arranges the date directly with the restaurant.

Prelude

Prelude was developed in collaboration with artist Aleksey Manukyan, whose practice is deeply connected to the urban and natural landscapes of Gyumri, in Armenia's Shirak region. The collection grew out of a shared exploration of the Shirak landscape and the wool sourced there, in a region where sheep breeding has shaped everyday life for centuries.

Through this process, Manukyan returned to drawings he made in 2010, transforming their lines into woven compositions across the blankets. The collection includes five blankets, each handwoven from pure Armenian wool and finished with hand embroidery by local artisans.

About OCHRE

Founded in Armenia in 2020, OCHRE is a creative social enterprise working at the intersection of art, design, and craft. OCHRE collaborates with artists and artisans to create objects for everyday life while supporting the continuity of Armenian artisanal knowledge. Its practice is rooted in material culture, with a particular focus on wool, embroidery, and other artisanal traditions preserved within Armenian communities.

Many of the traditions OCHRE works with have survived displacement, rupture, and migration. Through collaboration, research, and making, OCHRE works to sustain these practices not as static heritage, but as living knowledge that continues to take new form and shape everyday life. Alongside its design practice, OCHRE supports artistic research projects exploring these legacies, including a project with École des Arts Décoratifs – PSL Paris on the displaced heritage of Ourfa embroidery.

The lot

A gift from a studio of handmade tableware: a children's set from the “Sevook Oulik” collection, inspired by a fairy tale by the classic Armenian writer Hovhannes Tumanyan. Each set holds three pieces — a porcelain plate, a soup bowl and a cup — and arrives in a box illustrated with scenes from the story, a small world of its own.

Two sets are offered.

The lot

A vase from the same studio of handmade porcelain. The body is worked into a dense, carved texture that catches the light, while around the opening run hand-painted lines from the Armenian poet Yeghishe Charents — word becoming part of the object itself.

It arrives in a presentation box marked “Crafted by tradition, cherished for generations.”

The lot

A gift certificate worth 40,000 AMD for Memi Kids Corner, a Yerevan boutique offering premium children's toys and clothing, with delivery across Armenia and worldwide.

The certificate can be spent on whatever a child loves most — soft linen clothes, toys and small treasures for the little ones at home.