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Inherent in Taleen Berberian�s sculpture and installations is a stylized notion of femininity that re-integrates traditional elements in unorthodox ways. She combines materials with sexual connotations, influenced by fashion design and surrealism, resulting in a playful interpretation of archetypal forms. Taleen constructs ethereal installations capturing the essence of womens' crafts to encase, enlarge, and permeate personal boundaries with a submissive and unruly imagination.
Suspended or site-specific installations are translucent and textural surroundings from which gender is palpable. Within soft spaces of fabric and mixed mediums, sculpture and environment converge producing canopied theatrical settings where viewers are the actors and audience.

Photos by Chris Burke (shoes) and Scott Davis.
IMAGE DESCRIPTION : from top to bottom of page - FOYER (installation), 2004 and detail. Fabric, copper wire, thread, mixed media, 213 x 152 x 122 cm - SHOE GROUPING, 2003. Ceramic, oil paint, mixed mediums, each approx. 12 x 9 x 4 in.- VESSEL, 2004, detail. Fiberglass, resin, beeswax, fabric, wire, thread.
62 x 25 x 25 inches.



Taleen Berberian received her MFA from Pratt institute in 1998, and her BFA from California College of the Arts in 1995. Her work has been exibited bi-coastally and abroad. Her awards include the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council�s World Views Artist Residency Program (1999/2000) and the Bronx Museum of the Arts Artist in the Marketplace Residency Program (2000). She has worked as a Professor of Art at St. John�s University from 2000 - 2003, and an art teacher to children at the 92nd Street Y from 1999-2003. She received an Artslink grant for a residency to the Republic of Armenia in 2001. She currently lives and works in New York City and is a mother to 2 year-old Sevan.

Enveloped in the work, one experiences a play with scale both whimsical and enigmatic.

Sculpting is the vital feature of Taleen�s process. Modeled, sewn, assembled, or cast into corporeal forms, sculptures are created from ceramic, fiberglass, wax and found objects. A dressmaker mother�s shoe collection inspired painterly high-heeled shoe sculptures that are formally similar yet inexhaustibly different in materialization. Nipples sculpted, sewn or drawn are a signature symbol of sustenance and sexuality.

Drawing is an essential part of Taleen�s process with which she explores the unlimited potential of line, color and symbol, corresponding to her three-dimensional work. Applying various combinations of materials, surfaces and techniques, drawings ascend from tradition. Within, drawn forms are used as bodily metaphors. Derived from sculptural elements from the macro and microcosmic perspectives, drawing is enables her to perpetually deplete and renew potentials for artistic applications.