About Vartan Moskofian

From surreal paintings to stone sculptures. Art has always been passion of mine. Growing up in Lebanon during the civil war, I was sent to a boarding school in Cyprus. I started by carving miniatures out of chalk in the classroom, this was the jumping off point for my love of creating three-dimensional work. The process of creation has inherently been part of my being. Having worked in London in a corporate field for years as an engineer alongside architects, I incorporated my creative skills as much as possible. I made the decision to make sculpting, painting and other forms of art a more focal part of my life. Having previously joined the Pure Form sculpting group, based in Kent university, my sculptural work developed a somewhat surrealist perspective at that time, a theme that has continued to this present day.

Pure form was a collective of sculptors based in the University of Kent. It is more than just a workshop; it is a meeting of minds. We all vary greatly in our approach to stone sculpting.  As a former engineer, I take a methodical calculated approach to my work, taking care to plan and execute my pieces whilst keeping an element of spontaneity. We have had the privilege of being able to use stone from Canterbury Cathedral to work with. As renovations have been taking place to the facade of the building, we have exclusively been given this stone. The idea of creating something new from such historic material, has inspired a majority of my work. I create unusual pieces which reflect my love of Kandinsky, Picasso, Hepworth and Dali. Every stone sculpture is made by hand using traditional methods without the intervention of any power tools.

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John Meardon and I, a fellow sculptor recently landed a commission from Canterbury Cathedral to produce an Armenian khachkar (cross stone sculpture) now homed in the Cathedral grounds. This was a fantastic opportunity to make a comment about identity, how form is used, how spaces interplay and an exploration of how site-specific work is both challenging yet exhilarating. Though crowd funding and sponsorship this piece is accompanied with a documentary explaining the roots of the project, and the journey to creation.