Collections of a Cab Driver – Sarkis Alvandi
This show is about resilience, hidden talent, and the power of rediscovery.
Sarkis Alvandi, spent decades providing for his family, creating art in the quiet moments between long hours as a cab driver.
His work was hidden away—literally in the trunk of his taxi—until it was uncovered years later.
At 80 years old, it’s time for the world to see his masterpieces spanning more than 350 Original works.
Day/Time: Friday, March 28, 2025 from 7:00 PM till 10:00 PM
Day/Time: Saturday, March 29, 2025 from 3:00 PM till 6:00 PM
Collections of a Cab Driver: The Art of Sarkis Alvandi
For over 45 years, Sarkis Alvandi has navigated the streets as a taxi driver, weaving through the pulse of the city while carrying thousands of passengers from one destination to another. But between the honking horns and fleeting conversations, Sarkis found something rare—stillness. In those quiet moments of waiting for the next fare, he turned to pen and paper, capturing the world through his own lens.
What began as doodles on the back of trip logs evolved into a vast collection of over 200 intricate and deeply personal artworks. Each piece is a snapshot of a moment, a reflection of a story told in passing, a vision shaped by decades of encounters, emotions, and the unseen beauty of everyday life.
A Journey Through Ink and Imagination
Collections of a Cab Driver is more than an art exhibition—it’s a visual diary of a working man’s journey, an odyssey of lines and patterns that capture the soul of a city in transit. Through Sarkis’ artwork, viewers are invited into the hidden world of a cab driver, where every ride is a new experience, every face a fleeting muse, and every street a canvas for reflection.
From the Driver’s Seat to the Art World
Sarkis’ pieces are raw yet refined, inspired by the perspectives only a taxi driver can witness—the solitude of empty roads at dawn, the electric buzz of city nightlife, the quiet moments of contemplation in rearview mirrors. His work is a testament to the beauty found in the in-between spaces of life, a reminder that inspiration often lives in the places we least expect.
Now, for the first time, Collections of a Cab Driver brings together this lifetime of artwork—a collection born on the streets, shaped by the rhythm of the city, and shared with the world.
Հոգու Տարերք
Anahit Koutsouzian
Armenian Folk & Romantic Songs
Friday, April 18, 2025 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Tickets: $50
For tickets www.Eventbrite.com & Info – Please call 747-208-2000
Hyusnunts And Friends: Songs Without Words
Hyusnunts and friends: Armen Hyusnunts (saxophones), Artashes Kartalyan (keyboards), Levon Simonyan (guitar), Vik Momjian (bass guitar), & Arman Jalalyan (drums)
Songs without words
Tuesday, March 11, 2025 from 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM
Tickets: $50
For tickets www.ArmenianArts.com & Info – Please call 747-208-2000
Voices Unheard: Stories of Identity and Language
Join the Center for Armenian Arts for an evening of documentary and experimental short films that straddle the layered and overlapping spaces between image, identity and language. The five filmmaker/artists—Carla Kekejian, Mariam Meliksetyan, Ara Oshagan, Gazelle Samizay and Anahid Yahjian—tackle diverse themes from multiple perspectives as they meditate on what is a name, return to diasporic language, walk in spaces of incarceration, consider memory on indigenous land and reflect on a hidden language. All works are interconnected and retain a deep-lying coherence as the filmmakers/artists look to the future to imagine new ways of being and thinking.
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with the filmmakers/artists.
Carla Kekejian – Harsneren, 16 mins, 2019
Mariam Meliksetyan – Say My Name, 21 mins, 2024
Ara Oshagan – but for the happenstance of history II, 4 mins, 2020
Gazelle Samizay — My Shadow is a Word Writing Itself Across Time, 6 mins, 2017
Anahid Yahjian – Hishé, 5 mins, 2021
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Dr. Carla Kekejian is a licensed speech-language pathologist and founder of SoCal Speech-Language Therapy, a private practice dedicated to supporting pediatric speech and language development. She earned her Ph.D. and M.S. in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Utah and her M.A. in Education with a focus on Human Development and Psychology from UCLA. Dr. Kekejian is a faculty member at both CSUN and CSULB, where she instructs a variety of graduate and undergraduate courses in speech-language pathology.
Mariam Meliksetyan is an Armenian-American actress and filmmaker based in Los Angeles. She has been professionally trained at the prestigious UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television, Drama Centre London at Central Saint Martins, and Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Having worked as an actress in many independent films, she longed to tell stories from behind the camera as well. Fueled by a lifelong love for cinema and a fascination with documenting the world around her from a young age, she set out to make her directorial debut with the short experimental documentary “Say My Name” which she also produced.
Ara Oshagan is a diasporic multi-disciplinary artist and curator exploring dispossession, identity, and decolonization. Working in photography, collage, installation, and film, he has published four books and exhibited globally, including in Los Angeles, New York, Armenia, and South Korea. His work has been featured in NPR, LA Times, and Hyperallergic. Oshagan is an Artist-in-Residence at 18th Street Art Center and curator at Glendale’s ReflectSpace Gallery.
Gazelle Samizay, born in Kabul and raised in rural Washington, explores culture, nationality, and gender through her bicultural identity. Her photography and mixed media work has been exhibited globally and is in major museum collections. A published writer and vice president of the Afghan American Artists and Writers Association, she has received numerous awards. She holds an MFA from the University of Arizona and is the gallery director at UC Berkeley’s Worth Ryder Art Gallery.
Anahid Yahjian is a Los Angeles-based independent writer, director and producer of experimental, documentary and narrative cinema. Her work is driven by questioning and pursuit: of history, of power, of memory, of liminality, of the surreal and the sublime. Her commitment to telling true stories was shaped by an early love for visual storytelling that was formalized in college and took flight during her coming of age in Armenia. When not creating her own work, she directs commercials, branded content and music videos.
Thursday, February 27, 2025 from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Threads of Heritage
The Center of Armenian Arts is proud to present Threads of Heritage, a collaborative exhibition celebrating the richness of Armenian traditions, cultural memory, and artistic expression. Featuring the works of Ani Gevorgian, Zepure Jerahian, and Shakeh Markarians, this showcase weaves together history and contemporary creativity, exploring patterns, textures, and narratives that connect past and present.
Join us for an inspiring journey through woven stories and artistic heritage.
Day/Time: Friday, May 2, 2025 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Day/Time: Saturday, May 3, 2025 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Fragments of Being
My art is a dialogue with movement, fluidity, and the rawness of human vulnerability. Through photography and sculptural forms, I seek to evoke emotions that resonate beyond the tangible. My work defies the static and the finite, embracing the unspoken, the unfinished, and the imperfect.
Each piece carries a sense of continuation—a rhythm that echoes the ceaseless motion of life itself. For me, art is not about perfection but about stirring something profound within, reminding us that there is no true end, only the constant evolution of form, feeling, and connection.
Day/Time: Friday, April 25, 2025 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Day/Time: Saturday, April 26, 2025 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Form & Abstraction
The Center of Armenian Arts proudly presents Form & Abstraction, a solo exhibition by Shahen Zarookian, exploring the dynamic interplay of structure and spontaneity. Through bold compositions and expressive forms, Zarookian challenges conventional boundaries, inviting viewers into a world where shape, color, and movement take on new meaning.
Join us for this captivating showcase on:
Day/Time: Thursday, April 17, 2025 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Day/Time: Friday, April 18, 2025 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Day/Time: Saturday, April 19, 2025 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Experience the power of abstraction and discover the artistry behind form.
Cosmic Solitude: Meet The Author Yulia Grigoryants
COSMIC SOLITUDE is an exploration of solitude and isolation in one of the Soviet Union’s largest cosmic ray research stations, located in the remote mountains of Armenia. Once a place of great scientific importance, the station continues to operate today, though only three people live and work there year-round, surrounded by silence and vast, open landscapes.
Through striking imagery, the book documents life at the station, offering a rare glimpse into a world where time seems to stand steel. But beyond its surface, Cosmic Solitude is a reflection on the deeper meanings of solitude both physical and existential. It encourages the viewer to pause and think about the connection between people and the places they inhabit, about time, and about the meaning of what it is to be human and alone.
Edited by renowned photo editor Sarah Leen and printed in Italy, Cosmic Solitude is a visual journey into one of the world’s most remote scientific outposts, where past and present quietly coexist.
YULIA GRIGORYANTS is a visionary documentary photographer from Armenia whose work explores the unseen aspects of human experience, capturingthe aftermath of conflict, the lives of marginalized communities, and the enduring impact of social and cultural challenges. Through her lens, she examines themes of memory, loss, and the quiet resilience of people.
Her photography is deeply influenced by her personal history: born in Azerbaijan to an Armenian family, Grigoryants fled the country in 1988 to escape the violence against Armenians. Growing up in Armenia during the transition from Soviet rule to independence, surviving a devastating earthquake, and enduring the socioeconomic hardship and scarcity following years of war. Her work has been published in major outlets such as The New York Times, The Sunday Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and Al Jazeera. It has also been showcased at the Sharjah Art Biennial (UAE), Musée Albert-Kahn (France), the Council of Europe (France), Somerset House (UK), The House of United Nations (Armenia).
Grigoryants has received several notable awards, including the Albert-Kahn Award and Prix Maison Blanche. She currently lives and works between Paris and Yerevan.
Day/Time: Tuesday, March 4, 2025 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Odyssey
The “Odyssey” collection invites the audience to experience an artistic exploration of life’s journey. A modern approach on how each life stage and experience reshapes us, pulling us beyond who we were into who we are becoming.
Friday, April 4, 2025 from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM
Saturday, April 5, 2025 from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM
