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New York, NY: Miles McEnery Gallery, Raffi Kalenderian, 19 November - 19 December 2020

New York, NY: Miles McEnery Gallery, Raffi Kalenderian, 19 November - 19 December 2020

New York, NY: Miles McEnery Gallery, Raffi Kalenderian, 19 November - 19 December 2020

New York, NY: Miles McEnery Gallery, Raffi Kalenderian, 19 November - 19 December 2020

New York, NY: Miles McEnery Gallery, Raffi Kalenderian, 19 November - 19 December 2020

New York, NY: Miles McEnery Gallery, Raffi Kalenderian, 19 November - 19 December 2020

New York, NY: Miles McEnery Gallery, Raffi Kalenderian, 19 November - 19 December 2020

New York, NY: Miles McEnery Gallery, Raffi Kalenderian, 19 November - 19 December 2020

New York, NY: Miles McEnery Gallery, Raffi Kalenderian, 19 November - 19 December 2020

New York, NY: Miles McEnery Gallery, Raffi Kalenderian, 19 November - 19 December 2020

New York, NY: Miles McEnery Gallery, Raffi Kalenderian, 19 November - 19 December 2020

New York, NY: Miles McEnery Gallery, Raffi Kalenderian, 19 November - 19 December 2020

New York, NY: Miles McEnery Gallery, Raffi Kalenderian, 19 November - 19 December 2020

New York, NY: Miles McEnery Gallery, Raffi Kalenderian, 19 November - 19 December 2020

New York, NY: Miles McEnery Gallery, Raffi Kalenderian, 19 November - 19 December 2020

New York, NY: Miles McEnery Gallery, Raffi Kalenderian, 19 November - 19 December 2020

New York, NY: Miles McEnery Gallery, Raffi Kalenderian, 19 November - 19 December 2020

New York, NY: Miles McEnery Gallery, Raffi Kalenderian, 19 November - 19 December 2020

RAFFI KALENDERIAN
Chris and Nancy, 2020, Oil on canvas, 70 x 98 inches, 177.8 x 248.9 cm, MMG#32543,  

Chris and Nancy, 2020, Oil on canvas, 70 x 98 inches, 177.8 x 248.9 cm, MMG#32543

 

Anna and Sister, 2020, Oil on canvas, 98 x 70 inches, 248.9 x 177.8 cm, MMG#32474

Anna and Sister, 2020, Oil on canvas, 98 x 70 inches, 248.9 x 177.8 cm, MMG#32474

Alex, 2020, Oil on canvas, 98 x 70 inches, 248.9 x 177.8 cm, MMG#32550

Alex, 2020, Oil on canvas, 98 x 70 inches, 248.9 x 177.8 cm, MMG#32550

Julia and Slug, 2019, Oil on canvas, 60 x 84 inches, 152.4 x 213.4 cm, MMG#31945

Julia and Slug, 2019, Oil on canvas, 60 x 84 inches, 152.4 x 213.4 cm, MMG#31945

Diana, 2019, Oil on canvas, 48 x 36 inches, 121.9 x 91.4 cm, MMG#31943

Diana, 2019, Oil on canvas, 48 x 36 inches, 121.9 x 91.4 cm, MMG#31943

Dasha, 2020, Oil on canvas, 70 x 98 inches, 177.8 x 248.9 cm, MMG#32546

Dasha, 2020, Oil on canvas, 70 x 98 inches, 177.8 x 248.9 cm, MMG#32546

Tiara, 2020, Oil on canvas, 98 x 70 inches, 248.9 x 177.8 cm, MMG#32544

Tiara, 2020, Oil on canvas, 98 x 70 inches, 248.9 x 177.8 cm, MMG#32544

Andrew, 2020, Oil on canvas, 70 x 98 inches, 177.8 x 248.9 cm, MMG#32548

Andrew, 2020, Oil on canvas, 70 x 98 inches, 177.8 x 248.9 cm, MMG#32548

Ramiro, 2020, Oil on paper, 50 1/2 x 36 inches, 128.3 x 91.4 cm, MMG#32643

Ramiro, 2020, Oil on paper, 50 1/2 x 36 inches, 128.3 x 91.4 cm, MMG#32643

Michael Bauer in the Studio, 2020, Colored pencil, oil paint and pastel on paper, 44 3/4 x 54 inches, 113.7 x 137.2 cm, MMG#32641

Michael Bauer in the Studio, 2020, Colored pencil, oil paint and pastel on paper, 44 3/4 x 54 inches, 113.7 x 137.2 cm, MMG#32641

Joey and Jen, 2020, Colored pencil, oil paint and pastel on paper, 44 3/4 x 54 inches, 113.7 x 137.2 cm, MMG#32640

Joey and Jen, 2020, Colored pencil, oil paint and pastel on paper, 44 3/4 x 54 inches, 113.7 x 137.2 cm, MMG#32640

Sophia Reading, 2020, Colored pencil, oil paint and pastel on paper, 36 x 51 1/2 inches, 91.4 x 130.8 cm, MMG#32642

Sophia Reading, 2020, Colored pencil, oil paint and pastel on paper, 36 x 51 1/2 inches, 91.4 x 130.8 cm, MMG#32642

Press Release

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MILES McENERY GALLERY is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings by Raffi Kalenderian. The show will open on 19 November at 525 West 22nd Street and remain on view until 19 December 2020. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated publication featuring an essay by Glenn Adamson.

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.

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