Hrag Vartanian (Armenian: Հրակ Վարդանեան) (born 1973 or 1974)[1] is an Armenian-American arts writer,[1] art critic,[2] and art curator.[3] He is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of the arts online magazine Hyperallergic.
Vartanian was born in Aleppo, Syria,[4] raised in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and lives in Brooklyn, New York. His blog-magazine Hyperallergic was founded by Vartanian and his husband Veken Gueyikian in October 2009 [5] as a "forum for serious, playful and radical thinking".[6] Vartanian has contributed to numerous online and print publications including the Art:21 blog,[7] Boldtype, The Brooklyn Rail,[8] Huffington Post,[9] AGBU News Magazine, Ararat Magazine,[10] and NYFA Current.[11] He has guest contributed to Al Jazeera,[12] NPR,[13] ABC,[14] and WNYC.[15][16][17] He was formerly Director of Communications at AGBU, the world's largest Armenian non-profit organization. Vartanian was a staunch supporter of the controversial Hide/Seek exhibit which was censored by the Smithsonian.[18]
Vartanian has curated numerous exhibitions since the late 1990s. His most recent curatorial project was "Fixed Point Perspective: Ottoman Studio Photography and its Contemporary Legacy" at Minerva Projects in Denver, Colorado.[19] The work in the show was a mix of contemporary and historical, and featured artists Gariné Torossian and Hrair Sarkissian, among others.[20]