LILY KALOUSTIAN
New Orleans, LA | New York, NY
2026-2027 Scholarship New York Academy of Art & University of New Orleans
Scholarship 2024-2025, 2025-2026
Lily Kaloustian recently earned a Certificate of Fine Arts from New York Academy of Art, where she returned in Summer 2026 for a summer residency. In Fall 2026 she will begin pursuing a B.A. in Fine Art at the University of New Orleans. She identifies as a multi-media artist working primarily in oil painting, film photography, and glass-blowing. Her work is informed by her personal history and surroundings, both past and present. “As a surrealist painter, I draw inspiration from my heritage as an Armenian-American and from the two cities that have shaped me most: New Orleans, Santa Fe—both are places that border life and death, and where people celebrate them equally,” she explains. “I try to listen to the stories these places have to tell and transfer the wisdom to the canvas.”
She uses the grisaille oil painting technique to address the human experience, aiming to reveal the surrealism in everyday objects and themes. “‘The unconscious plane’ or ’dreamworld’ is a place where ideas and conversations can be had between artist and viewer from nearly any walk of life. I hope to create a bridge between the dreamworld and our own, and in the words of Cesar A. Cruz, ‘comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable,’" explains Kaloustian. In addition to fine arts, she plans to study sociology and architecture to further inform the themes of her artwork.
Lily Kaloustian is an experienced muralist, has exhibited artwork in New York and New Orleans, and currently sells her work at the Frenchmen Art Bazaar. She first joined the YAYA Guild in 2018.
All works are copyright of the artist.