Last year, Aram Manukyan and his wife Roksi, moved to Birkenhead under the Homes for Ukraine scheme and the couple have been studying English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) at Wirral Met College.
Aram, who is an internationally renowned artist, fled the war in Ukraine, later returning to rescue his collection of paintings.
Aram, 59, was born in Georgia and studied at the Academy of Arts in Tbilisi followed by the Stieglitz Academy in St Petersburg, where he lived for seven years.
He worked among a group of artists including film director Sergei Parajanov, whose acclaimed feature The Colour of Pomegranates is listed in the British Film Institute’s Greatest Films of All Time.
In 2011, Aram moved to Ukraine and continued working there until Russia invaded. He has previously exhibited around the world, including Naples and Rome. His work is featured in private collections in Ukraine, USA, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Austria, Israel, Georgia, and Armenia.
To show his appreciation and to help budding local artists, Aram has presented an exhibition of his rescued artworks and a live painting masterclass for the art department and fellow ESOL students.
Earlier this year, a three-day exhibition of dozens of his paintings opened at Wirral Met College’s Twelve Quays Campus in Birkenhead. Aram has also presented his work at a recent exhbition at The Royal Liver Building, appearing as a guest artist at this year's Wirral Met College Degree Show.
The show was made possible by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s Test and Learn programme, which was launched to address market failures in adult skills delivery. The pioneering scheme uses 5% of the city region’s annual £54m adult education budget to encourage innovation in teaching.
Aram said “I’m really happy to be here and enjoying studying English. This is a place I have always dreamed about being and my dreams are coming true every day. I always wanted to study language but never had the time and didn’t take it seriously. This exhibition means a lot to me. I feel like I can be useful here for the students by showing them how I work in the studio and how to paint abstract paintings. I always wanted to study the technique of a professional artist when I was studying art, but it wasn’t standard practice at the time in the Soviet Union.
“When the war started, we lived near the airport and it was scary when they started bombing in the morning so we left the following day for Poland with just one backpack. We thought it wouldn’t last for long, but then a few months passed and I understood the war would go on for a long time. I was worried because my paintings, which I had put so much work into, were still in the studio, so we decided to go back and get them. We stayed for a week because it was a long process. I have got lots of paintings and I had to choose which to take. I decided to take all the latest works and leave the earlier ones. I took the canvases out of the frames and rolled them up – as many as I could manage – but half of them are still there.”
To explore Aram’s work, visit https://aram-manukyan.com/
For more information about English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses, visit https://wmc.ac.uk/courses/english-for-speakers-of-other-languages
