Upstate (RP)

Born in Los Angeles and trained at UCLA, Raffi Kalenderian creates portraits and landscapes, using seemingly innocuous subjects as vehicles through which to explore the vivid, psychological power of paint. Variously compared to artists such as David Hockney and Jonas Wood, he relishes the experimental properties of the medium, often using found imagery as well as working from live subjects. ‘I learned how to make oil paintings by going to the art store and buying oil paint, medium, turpenoid and then just going crazy in the studio’, he explains. ‘In the beginning I would use oil paint with a drawing mindset, and eventually I figured out how to glaze and stain, add seasoning and texture. Sometimes the paintings take two years and change a million times as I search for something that works. Other times a painting will be done in a day.’ In Upstate (RP), Kalenderian depicts a garage – a signifier of everyday suburban life in present-day America – amongst an intensely geometric landscape. His graphic brushstrokes and dark colours play with depth and texture, creating a landscape that appears to close in around its subject.