The Modern Art Museum of Yerevan, Armenia and curator Anton Levahin presented Akhsar Muriev’s solo exhibition, titled Magnifique Voyage, ou L'Histoire d'un Homme. Anton Levahin reflecting on the exhibition: the French title created a thought-provoking dialogue between Muriev’s works and the meditative reflections of Marcel Proust, particularly with the characters in Proust’s magnum opus À la recherche du temps perdu. This intertextual reference emphasized both the philosophical underpinnings and the nostalgic, almost reverential tone of the exhibition. The duality in the title further underscored the exhibition's layered context—it is, on one hand, a personal journey and, on the other, a reflective story of transformation through observation.
Zara Ayryumyan, an Armenian art historian and deputy director for science at the Modern Art Museum of Yerevan, remarked on the strong influence of European contemporary school within Muriev’s canvases. While the figures depicted are highly dramatic and emotionally charged, the composition, color palette, and brushwork reveal a distinctly European sensibility. “Akhsar’s approach to form is especially intriguing; he actively engages with deformation, a compelling technique that evokes elements of surrealism and aligns some of his pieces with the fantastic realism movement. Still, this remains contemporary art — a space where objective interpretation becomes irrelevant, allowing each work to be perceived uniquely by the viewer, the artist, and the critics,” — Ayryumyan commented.
Armen Yesayants, art historian, director of the exhibition department at the Cafescjian Centre of Arts and curator of the Armenian Pavilion at the Biennale Arte 2024, highlights the dramaturgical qualities, a certain narrative thread in Akhsar Muriev’s works, where elements also resonate with the spirit of German Expressionism. “You can draw certain parallels with Otto Dix, Kirchner, and even, to an extent, Munch. Muriev’s paintings display an intensity of fauvist tones and an aggressive expressiveness in the forms and figures, which creates a sharp, direct engagement with the viewer, evoking a uniquely expressionist effect but in a more contemporary interpretation, attuned to today’s sensibilities,” Yesayants noted. He added that some works carry a "sculptural" and "decorative" quality with a pastose texture, where instead of delicate brushstrokes, a more pronounced, almost relief-like effect appears, as if the figures could step off the canvas and engage with the viewer at any moment.
