Between worlds, on canvas: Davit Musayelyan’s artistic journey

On January 22, 2025, an individual exhibition and sale of paintings by artist Davit Musayelyan opened at the “Pyunik” gallery located at 3/1 Buzand Street in Yerevan, Armenia. 19 paintings from 2023-2024 are on display at the gallery.

Musayelyan is from the village of Arjis in the Noyemberyan region of Tavush. He has been painting since childhood but strengthened his artistic knowledge a decade ago, after enrolling at Panos Terlemezian Yerevan State College of Fine Arts in 2015. After a break to complete his military service, he graduated and was admitted to the State Academy of Fine Arts of Armenia, where he is currently a third year student in the department of painting.

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Musayelyan is inspired by Armenian artists such as Martiros Saryan, Hakob Hakobyan and Minas Avetisyan. His creative journey was greatly influenced by Davit Davtyan, who taught him in his first year at Terlemezyan and laid the foundation for the development of his creative growth and professional skills.

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At the opening of his individual exhibition, Musayelyan shared with the Weekly, “It’s hard for me to single out a specific genre in which I paint, so I’ll mention a few. My art blends surrealism, realism and abstraction, and I try to combine each of them. I love to do sketches in nature, so some of my canvases depict the landscapes of my native village, because I grew up there, and every scene from that place is very dear to me.”

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The artist loves all of his works but there are canvases that he feels especially deeply. For example, the painting “Debed Gorge” was created on-site, depicting his birthplace and its precious memories. Musayelyan also loves his smaller canvases depicting the landscapes of his native village. The houses in those paintings have their own unique stories. 

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Musayelyan also highlighted another canvas called “Flight,” which was his graduation work from college. It explores the importance of bees in nature and pollination. The painting has a central message — that the bee carries human life, because without it, nature wouldn’t be pollinated, and if nature didn’t exist, humanity wouldn’t survive. The painting also depicts the Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio, which apply to both humans and bees.

Davit Musayelyan

Musayelyan says he will never abandon painting. “If you don’t love art, you can’t understand its depth and content. I approach my art with love — the most important thing in life is love,” he said.

In a conversation with the Weekly, Garik Manukyan, a lecturer in the department of painting at the State Academy of Fine Arts of Armenia and a painter himself, also spoke about the artist: “Davit is an introverted person, not talkative, but he is a very intelligent young man. He is already a well-formed artist, and his art is characterized by an interesting way of thinking. His works show that he not only has his own style but also knows how to solve artistic challenges correctly. However, he still has a long way to go to fully reach his creative peak. Yet, I already love his works and his path at this stage.”

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“In order to fully understand anything in life, one must reach the last point of life. Since I have not reached that day, I cannot fully comprehend who I am,” Musayelyan said. “Painting is the only thing that can take me out of this world, cut me off from all the worries and burdens of the day. You could say that this is my own world within this world.”

Anzhela Sedrakyan

Anzhela Sedrakyan

Anzhela Sedrakyan is a freelance journalist based in Yerevan. She is a student in the journalism department at Khachatur Abovian Yerevan State University of Pedagogy. She has published articles in Yerkir.am, Aravot.am and Azg.am. She enjoys writing human interest stories as well as articles on social issues, national and cultural topics.

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