Born in Lebanon in 1965, Madlen’s gift announced itself early. By the age of 13 she was already recognized in her community, commissioned by Rev. Manuel V. Terzian to create her first religious work for the church. A year later, His Holiness the Catholicos, Universal Patriarch of Armenians, commissioned a second, a painting that resides to this day in the Zmmar Museum in Lebanon.
She studied at the Collège des Moines Libanais in Jounieh before immigrating to Toronto in 1984, where she earned her degree in Visual Art & Science from the University of Toronto. Inspired by the Great Masters, Renoir, Manet, Degas and Michelangelo, she developed a bold, luminous command of colour and light that became the hallmark of her style.
Today, Madlen’s work is entering a bold new chapter. Moving into acrylic, she has embraced a larger scale and a new intensity: works of striking detail, deep contrast and raw emotional presence. The same devotion to light and feeling that has always defined her art now finds expression in a medium of greater depth and vibrancy.
“By age 13, she was commissioned by the Universal Patriarch of Armenians. That painting resides to this day in the Zmmar Museum, Lebanon.”
