Jean Boghossian is a Belgian-Lebanese artist born in Aleppo. His family later endured the Armenian Genocide and, following the upheaval of the Lebanese Civil War, he relocated to Brussels. His personal history is marked by displacement, resilience, and transformation — experiences that resonate through his work. He has developed a highly distinctive approach to contemporary art, with fire as his central medium.

Coming from a family of jewellers, Boghossian grew up around craftsmanship, precision, the use of fire to mold metal and manipulate stones. This experience informs the tactile sensitivity in his art. His Mediterranean and Middle Eastern roots infuse his work with rich symbolic layers, drawing on regional histories of conflict, displacement, and myth.

In Belgium, Boghossian deepened his engagement with art, studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Boitsfort and Uccle, whilst continuing his involvement in the family’s jewellery enterprise. His artistic practice underwent a significant transformation in 2010 when he began experimenting with fire as a medium. This technique, which involves controlled burning, became his signature, representing a dynamic tension between destruction and renewal.

Boghossian’s artistic process is a quest for balance within the inherent chaos of fire and smoke, a method he describes as a «fire dance». He seeks to achieve harmony through this medium, placing him in dialogue with artists such as Burri, Fontana, Pollock, Klein, and Kounellis.

His commitment to the arts is further evidenced by the co-founding of the Boghossian Foundation at Villa Empain in Brussels in 1992, alongside his brother Albert and father Robert. The foundation reflects his dedication to cultural and artistic endeavours.

Boghossian uses fire, alongside smoke, combustion tools, and other heat sources, to burn, scorch, and deform a wide range of materials such as paper, books, canvas, and wood. His engagement with fire spans nearly a decade of sustained experimentation, during which he has pushed the boundaries of what this volatile medium can express. Often starting with traditional artistic media like paint, ink, or wood, he then disrupts the surface with fire, allowing chance, physics, and elemental transformation to intervene. Fire becomes a tool of both creation and erasure, simultaneously marking and mutating the material. This process is inherently unpredictable, making each work a fragile, ephemeral collaboration between artist and flame, where transformation and beauty coexist.

He blends this pyro-technique with influences from calligraphy, modernist abstraction, and even classical subjects, often pushing materials to the edge of ruin to reveal a new kind of visual language. His work evokes both fragility and resilience, order and chaos.

Jean Boghossian’s journey as an artist is deeply rooted in migration, reinvention, and a lifelong dialogue between cultures. Immersed in a European art scene rich with abstraction and conceptualism, Brussels offered Boghossian a vital space of experimentation. He began to refine his unique language of fire-based art. His early explorations in painting and sculpture evolved into an increasingly radical engagement with flame—burning, scorching, and singeing surfaces to create works that challenge the boundaries between destruction and creation.

His unique approach has gained international recognition, leading to significant exhibitions, including representing the Pavilion of the Republic of Armenia at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017 with Fiamma Inestinguibile. In 2019, his work was featured at the Wooyang Museum of Contemporary Art in Gyeongju, Korea, in an exhibition titled Flamme Intérieure. He continued to engage viewers in 2022 with Melencolia Contemporanea in Venice and Dialogue at the Matenadaran in Yerevan, Armenia, followed by The Sea is Green at SBM and Opera Gallery in Monaco. In 2023, his The Language of Fire – Flaming Imaginary was presented at Villa Zito’s Pinacoteca, curated by Bruno Corà, and various locations in Palermo.

In 2024, Boghossian held solo exhibitions with N Gallery, Nosbaum Reding Gallery, and Anima Gallery, while also presenting large-scale in situ exhibitions at the Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo, UBP Union Bancaire Privée in Monaco, and a permanent exhibition at the Steigenberger Icon Wiltcher’s in Brussels. Additionally, his works were featured at the Brafa Art Fair, TEFAF Maastricht, Art Busan, Luxembourg Art Week, and KIAF Seoul in the same year. The Artist also participated in Art D’Égypte’s Forever is Now exhibition, exhibiting alongside leading contemporary artists at the Great Pyramids of Giza. Most recently, in 2025, Boghossian was exhibiting in Gem Genève in Switzerland showcasing its unique blend of artistic heritage and contemporary vision to a global audience of collectors, designers, and curators.

Today, Boghossian lives and produces in the heart of the European Capital. He maintains a studio practice that continues to bridge his Western environment and Eastern heritage. Though now internationally recognised, he remains deeply connected to the Middle East, not only through memory and cultural identity but through active artistic engagement.