Apo Avedissian


Apo Avedissian is an Iraqi-born Armenian-American artist, often working in film-making, writing, photography, and painting.
Avedissian’s writing portfolio most notably includes the autobiographical book “Thirteen in Baghdad,” detailing his life as a teenager in Baghdad during the 2003 Iraq War.

Personal life

Avedissian started his path into the world of photography and his documentary style videography at the age of thirteen, at the beginning of the 2003 Iraq War. Born to Armenian parents, both of whom were children of Armenian Genocide survivors, he immigrated to the United States in 2005. He's fluent in Arabic, Armenian, and English - and often uses all three in his artwork.

Artwork

His most recent short-film "Armenia & Artsakh - A Bird's Eye View," which has reached over 100,000 combined views, in addition to the previous short-film “Obsessive Possessive - An Experience,” helped in bringing the total to 500,000 combined views.
As of 2019, he has released 1-minute-long painting videos, and as of the year's first six months, those videos have already amassed over 500,000 combined views.

Influencers

Avedissian cites graffiti artists Retna and Shepard Fairey as the two artists he follows closely the most.

Activism

Avedissian's teen years being spent in war and his grandparents' survival from the genocide put an immense load on his upbringing.
Avedissian’s work often includes tributes and a push for international recognition of the Armenian Genocide, including starting the Twitter #ArmenianGenocide campaign the week prior to April 24th, 2011. Using his blog's popularity to reach bigger accounts, and trending it after the involvement of and assistance from popular accounts like Kim Kardashian’s
, the hashtag has been trending yearly on the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, since.
Avedissian visited Armenia in 2018, right after the 2018 Armenian revolution, and documented his trip via drone footage, which are all featured in his "Armenia & Artsakh - A Bird's Eye View" short.