Arpie Gennetian is a fine artist and graphic designer. She uses her love of lines, color, paper, typography, and thread to begin her works on paper. A grid is the primary compositional structure in Arpie’s work. Her own drawings, together with selections from her growing collection of paper and printed typography, are carefully cropped by hand with scissors and stitched into place to create larger drawings composed of circles on a grid. “My process is about finding beauty in lines and color and form. I don’t look far for inspiration. . . it is everywhere.”
Arpie Gennetian was born and raised in Watertown, Massachusetts and earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Graphic Design degrees from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1992. She worked as a graphic designer for the Museum of Modern Art and the architecture firm, Gensler, before shifting her focus to fine art. Arpie’s work has been included in the artist registry at the Drawing Center in New York City. She has exhibited at galleries in New Jersey, New York City, and Boston, and her artwork is in many private collections throughout the U.S. She works from her studio just outside New York City and has recently received her Master of Arts in History of Design and Curatorial Studies at Parsons School of Design and Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum.
201.563.0025
arpiegennetian@gmail.com
Belkind Bigi
21 Main Street
Tarrytown, New York
Parsons School of Design | Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum 2019–2022
Class of 2022 Master of Arts, History of Design and Curatorial Studies
Rhode Island School of Design 1989–1992, Graphic Design
Class of 1992 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Bachelor of Graphic Design
Connecticut College 1987–1989, Studio Art
Part-Time Faculty, Parsons School of Design, September 2022–present
School of Art and Design History and Theory:
History of Design: 1850–2000, History of Modern & Contemporary Art, Objects As History
Symbol ’22: Symbol Sourcebook @50, Virtual Symposium, October 7–8, 2022
Presenter: A Future Collaboration: Our Search for Symbols
The story of my research for the upcoming exhibition, Give Me A Sign: The Language of Symbols,
Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, Opening Spring 2023
Curatorial Capstone Fellow 2021–2022, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum
Curatorial Research for exhibition, Give Me A Sign: The Language of Symbols,
(Inspired by the history of The Henry Dreyfuss Symbol Sourcebook, opening Spring 2023)
Curatorial Team led by Emily Orr, Associate Curator | Acting Head of Product Design and Decorative Arts
Graduate Teaching Assistant 2020–2022, Parsons School of Design
History of Design: 1850–2000, Professor Sarah Lichtman, School of Art and Design History and Theory
Juror, RISD Craft 2022, Rhode Island School of Design Providence, Rhode Island
Objective, Issue 5 Spring 2021,
Journal of History of Design and Curatorial Studies, Parsons School of Design
Graphic Designer: Online Publication, https://adht.parsons.edu/historyofdesign/objective/
Contributor: “WPA Posters: Art For The Common Good,”
https://adht.parsons.edu/historyofdesign/objectives/wpa-posters/
Research Assistant 2020–2022, Parsons School of Design
Professor David Brody, School of Art and Design History and Theory
Research and manuscript editing for upcoming publication
Education Department Fellow 2019-2020, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum
Research and graphic design of educational materials for upcoming programming at the museum
2023 Offshore Artist Residency Nantucket Island School of Design & The Arts
2022 the ground floats flowers Belkind-Bigi, Tarrytown, New York
2019 new drawings Belkind-Bigi, Tarrytown, New York
2018 RISD Craft Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
2018 Surface to Substrate Kendall Reiss Gallery, Bristol, Rhode Island
2016 RISD Craft Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
2015 Surface Liquid Art House, Boston, Massachusetts
2013 Merry Go Round Muriel Guepin Gallery, New York City
2012 Enso Gallery Denovo, Sun Valley, Idaho
2012 Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Summit, New Jersey
2011 Art In The Open Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
2010 Flower (re)power Housatonic Museum of Art, Bridgeport Connecticut
2010 Muriel Guepin Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
2009 Shopart, Brooklyn, New York
2007 Lineal Investigations Housatonic Museum of Art, Bridgeport, Connecticut
2007 New Directions Barrett Art Center Poughkeepsie, New York
2007 Armenian Women’s Art Exhibit The Village Quill, New York City
2006 Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Summit, New Jersey
2003 Barrett Art Center, Poughkeepsie, New York
2002 Viewing Program The Drawing Center, New York City
2002–present Arpie Gennetian LLC
Graphic Design and Fine Art Studio
1997–2001 Gensler, New York City, Associate Graphic Designer
Lead Graphic Designer for Corporate Communications Department: Branding, Marketing Materials,
Presentations, In-house Communications
(Honor: 1998 Print Magazine Regional Design Annual for Gensler Annual Report “Agility”)
1996–1997 Museum of Modern Art, New York City, Graphic Design Department
Freelance Exhibition Design & Graphic Design
Jasper Johns: a retrospective, Art Safari Family Guidebook
1994 Atlantic and Pacific Design Group, Inc., New York City
Freelance Graphic Design:
MTA Logo Implementation Design and MTA Logo Corporate Standards booklet
1993–1996 Sisco & Evans (Graphic Design firm), New York City
Freelance Graphic Design: Book Design, Poster Design, Logo Design
1993 Albert Woods Design Associates (Exhibition Design firm), New York City
Freelance Graphic Design: Valentine Riverside Museum, Didactic Panel Design
1993 Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, New York City, Junior Graphic Designer
In-house Graphic Design Department: Marketing Materials, Presentations, Communications
