David Boyajian
David Boyajian was born and raised in Connecticut. After receiving his BFA in 1980 from Alfred University, David attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and in 1982 completed his MFA from Maryland Institute, Rinehart School of Sculpture. For the decade following his fine art education, Boyajian continued honing his skills and found his own visual language while assisting internationally acclaimed figurative sculptors Wolfgang Behl, Elbert Weinberg, and Andrew Coppola.
In those days, David lived almost hermit like in his Hartford studio focusing his creative dynamism on narrative steel and wood sculptures often involving the figure. These gestural abstractions were inspired by images of man/women and their relationship to nature and dream. In 1991, Viviene Raynor of The New York Times called David Boyajian "a virtuoso wood carver, his pieces are incredibly complex...”
In addition to his contemporary indoor sculptures in steel, bronze, and wood, Boyajian has completed dozens of monumental commissioned works, both public and private. Working primarily in steel, these immense works of art usually start with an architectural component such as an archway, window or gate. This becomes the framework or location for the linear aspect of the monument, rendering these works of art allegorical in nature. Harvest Gate, commissioned in 1994 by the Hunger Task Force of Leadership Greater Hartford was designed to raise funds and awareness concerning the issue of hunger. It acts as an entranceway to the Main Street Farmers Market in Hartford's downtown. An earlier public piece titled Canton Gate reads like an existential travelogue. The Hartford Courant called Canton Gate; "not only aesthetically majestic: but historically, socially and environmentally informative; an imposing complex reminder of the rivers importance to the community."
By the mid 1990's as a result of Boyajian's highly visible public commissions, David was urged to show in several outdoor invitational. At that time, David began fabrication on a series of large-scale steel sculptures depicting the marriage between industrial material and organic forms. This grouping of rigorously crafted volumetric solids has developed into what is known as the Bud and Seed Series. In 1998 David was granted a solo exhibition of this work, which he titled Genesis. This outdoor show ran for eight months at the Robert Moses Sculpture Garden located at the Lincoln Center Campus of Fordham University in the heart of New York City. Grace Glueck of The New York Times said "Boyajian's buds and seeds rise well above the usual dross" and Christopher Atamian of Review Magazine called Genesis "a quietly poetic series of sculptures; a powerful, sweet exhibition indeed." In February of 2000, David was invited to show at the National Academy Museum's, 175 Annual Exhibition and was awarded the Sydney Simon Sculpture Award.