My paintings begin with pigment sourced from Armenia gathered from various regions including Lori, Tavush, Kotayk, and the mining town of Shamlugh. This material establishes a strong foundation of each work before the usage of oils, driers, waxes, and charcoal. Rather than functioning solely as color, Armenian earth pigment carries historic and ancestral weight in my studio. Through this material grounding, my paintings become vessels where memory and displacement are worked through.

My process is shaped by an ongoing engagement with Armenian reference material, including books, photographs, sheet music, archival imagery, and printed text dating from pre-genocide through the mid-1960s. As I work, these fragments gradually absorb the residue of painting itself. Ink splatters, charcoal dust, fingerprints, drips, and layers of pigment slowly accumulating on their surfaces. What begins as source material slowly transforms into something else entirely.

Over time, this accumulation has become central to my practice. I am continually drawn to these fragments scattered throughout my studio. I intentionally leave room for such moments to emerge and trust the process of recognizing when chance begins to carry meaning. A studio must remain a living environment, one in which works do not exist in isolation but continuously shape and influence one another.

Central also to my practice is the incorporation of said reference material directly onto my canvas surfaces. By pressing them into wet in-process paintings, I physically transfer traces of language, shape, and gesture onto my works, allowing venerable forms to re-emerge as contemporary marks. I follow fragments of lettering, ancient architecture, monuments, churches, and other imagery not to reproduce them literally, but to allow these forms to visibly persist through abstraction.

Adam Torcomian

New York City, 2026