Sonia Balassanian

Sonia Balassanian (b. 1942, Arak, Iran) is an artist of Armenian origin who lives and works in New York and Armenia. She works in painting, works on paper, collage, installation and video. Her large abstract paintings are built up through layers of underpainting into textured forms that resemble script but cannot be read.

Balassanian began as a poet and an abstract painter. After the events of 1979 in Iran, her work turned to political subjects: war, trapped populations, human rights and the position of women. Hostages: A Diary, a series of collages, was shown at Elise Meyer Gallery, New York, in 1980. Later work includes the installation Brooding at Exit Art, New York (1989). Who Is The Victim?, a video installation, was shown in the Armenian Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007. In 1992 she and Edward Balassanian founded the Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art in Yerevan.

She holds a BFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the University of Pennsylvania (1970) and an MFA from Pratt Institute (1978). She attended the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in 1971 and 1972. Her work was included in Committed to Print (1988) and Readymade Identities (1993) at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. She had a solo exhibition, The Other Side, at the Sculpture Center, New York, in 1992. She took part in the 47th Venice Biennale in 1997. Ab-Anbar presented Five Decades in the Making in London in 2022.