Raffi Kalenderian Exhibition

Miles McEnery Gallery

[Image: Raffi Kalenderian "Joe and Iman" (2020) Oil on canvas, 70 x 98 in.]

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MILES McENERY GALLERY presents an exhibition of new paintings by Raffi Kalenderian.

For Raffi Kalenderian, the whole painting is the portrait. Kalenderian’s works vary greatly in their handling of scale. The figures displayed occupy as much as half the overall pictorial plane, or may appear as quite small, tucked lovingly into a lush visual landscape. His surfaces are completely activated. Additionally, the paintings display time, as well as space. Temporal complexity is intrinsic to portrait painting. It unfolds across an extended duration and yet is perceived by the viewer in, and as, an instant. Looking at them is like experiencing déjà vu.

Glenn Adamson notes, “In art as in physics, energy must come from somewhere. It’s easy to get lost in his paintings, their saturated hues, their mesmerizing patterns, their psychological presence. That’s the right way to look at them — to give yourself the chance to see what Kalenderian saw, and somehow got down on canvas.”

With supreme care and affection, Kalenderian paints the paintings within his own, in miniature, a process he likens to a musician covering a song. “My friends are like celebrities to me,” he says, and you feel that in his pictures. They are exciting because he is excited when he paints them. “I think of portraiture,” he says, “as an opportunity to show love.”

RAFFI KALENDERIAN (b. 1981, Los Angeles, CA) received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2004. He also completed his artist residency at Idyllwild Arts Academy, Idyllwild, CA in 2004, and his artist residency at St. Barthélemy, French West Indies in 2007.

Recent solo exhibitions include Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; “Memento Vivo,” Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Culver City, C A; “Always in Rare Form,” Buchmann Galerie, Berlin, Germany; “Portraits,” Peter Kilchmann, Zürich, Switzerland; “For the Dead,” Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Project, Culver City, CA; “Green River,” Brand New Gallery, Milan, Italy; “To Walk Through the Night,” Peter Kilchmann, Zürich, Switzerland; “Raffi Kalenderian,” Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Culver City, C A; “Raffi Kalenderian, ” Buchmann Galerie, Berlin, Germany; “Interior Life,” Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zürich, Switzerland; “Currents, Undercurrents, and Manoeuvers,” Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Culver City, CA; “Raffi Kalenderian,” Brand New Gallery, Milan, Italy; “Memoranda, ” Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zürich, Switzerland; “Satellites, ” Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zürich, Switzerland; “Palimpsest: Selected Works on Paper,” Marc Jancou Fine Art, New York, NY; “Wicked Waters,” Medium, St. Barthélemy, French West Indies; “Born Under Punches,” Black Dragon Society, Los Angeles, CA.

Recent group exhibitions include “In the Meanwhile…Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Art,” Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA; “20 Years Anniversary Exhibition, ” Vielmetter Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA; “Painter’s Painters, ” Saatchi Gallery, London, United Kingdom; “Body Language,” Saatchi Gallery, London, United Kingdom; “Goldmine,” (curated by Christopher Scoates), University Art Museum, Long Beach, C A; “Painting, ” (curated by Roger Herman), L A Art House, Los Angeles, CA; “Next Generation, ” Kunstmuseum St Gallen, St Gallen, Switzerland; “L.A. Potential: HangArt 7,” (curated by Lioba Reddeker), Salzburg, Austria; “Some Paintings: The Third (2007),” LA Weekly Annual Biennal, Track 16 Gallery, Santa Monica, CA; Black Dragon Society, Los Angeles, CA.

His work may be found in the permanent collections of Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; University Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach, CA; and the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN.

Raffi Kalenderian lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.