"Apo, as he is known, is an artist for whom tactility has always played an important role, dating back to a series where he limited himself to only white, in order to concentrate on texture. Here, he employs burned toast as a primary textural element, along with burlap, wire mesh, modeling paste, and acrylic paints, to create compositions that are equally intriguing in visual, tactile, and symbolic terms.

The pieces of burned bread that Apo affixes to his large canvases are by no means employed frivolously or for mere novelty. They are transformed into legitimate expressive elements in this series, such as ‘Bread Number 214,’ where a large grid of burned toast slices is set within a textured border in a frontal manner akin to Jasper Johns at his best…"

-Tony Cavanaugh, ARTSPEAK

"While visiting an artist friend in Holland in 1976, Apo Torosyan noticed a piece of burned bread in the man’s studio. ‘It suddenly struck me,’ said Torosyan. ‘The material itself was so beautiful.’

’I want to grab people and say “Stop--I am going to make you thick twice.” My work is not only visual, it’s intellectual.

While Torosyan, the son of an Armenian father and Greek mother who grew up in Turkey, puts his own message in his art--including themes of nature, ordinariness and immigration--he invites viewers to come up with their own interpretations. ‘I don’t like to put a limit on it,’ he said. ‘It means different things to different people.’

What he can’t tolerate is viewers shrugging off or laughing at his work as gimmicky before giving it a chance. ‘All I say is give me five minutes of your life if you want to understand what I am doing,’ said Torosyan. ‘I am an educator. I am doing something that has not been done before.’"

-Wendy Killeen, The Boston Globe

"’My breads have several meanings,’ Torosyan said. ‘Of course, one of them is definitely part of my ancestry. Right now, it’s happening right across the ocean in Europe--the same thing. My vision when it comes to that is that, as human beings, we have learned nothing from our past.’

Torosyan is speaking of genocide--today in Kosovo; earlier this century, in the Ottoman Empire, now Turkey.

’The first genocide of our century was the Armenians,’ he said. ‘One and a half million people got killed,’ around 1915. ‘I have met some of the survivors.’

One was the husband of his aunt, whom he met while passing through Paris in 1964.

Young Armenian men were being killed when they reached the age of 17 or 18, Torosyan said. The uncle and others of that age were forced to dig a ditch, then were lined up along it to be shot in the head. But when his uncle’s turn came, the rifle misfired. Startled, he turned his head, and the bullet went through his ear, sparing him.

’He dropped between the bleeding dead,’ Torosyan said. ‘He stayed three days and nights without moving,’ finally making his escape to Sofia Bulgaria.

When they met, Torosyan said, ‘believe it or not, he brought me bread. Bread and cheese in a burlap bag. I’ll never forget that. So bread is the story of my life’"

-Heidi Knapp Rinella, News-Press

"When Apo Torosyan picks up his bread order from Anthony Bakery in West Peabody, some eyebrows raise. Each custom-baked loaf weighs in at a gargantuan 5 pounds and measures 12 by 16 inches.

Well, this bread isn’t for eating…it’s for art. Torosyan’s images of burnst, gilded, rope-bound bread, known as the paintings of the Bread Series, first took shape in 1992.

’I chose something ordinary, something that is mine,’ Torosyan says. ‘I started with a form and most artists are like this; the form and texture come first. Then it becomes a message and the meaning comes through it.'

For Torosyan, the message behind bread is symbolic of time, history and his own family’s suffering. Literally, lack of bread led to starvation and suffering for many of his ancestors."

-Carol Brooks Ball, North Shore Sunday

"It is only in understanding Torosyan and his connection to immigration that dirt and bread become a social commentary.

The works present themselves more as wall sculptures than paintings given their 3-D dynamic. Mediums ranging from wax paper and sand to gauze and acrylic are used in layers amplifying the 3-D effect.

Every painting is an experiment in unusual textures. This, coupled with ordinary objects and symbolism, works to create a message through repetition.

Whether you leave the gallery in bewilderment at what passes for art, or grasp the connections between humanity, earth, and art, Torosyan’s [work] is worth seeing.

You can’t walk away from the exhibit without having your state of mind slightly altered."

-Kelly Hardesty, The Siskiyou