Memoranda

Synopsis: With Los Angeles-based artist Raffi Kalenderian´s portraits - as with the work of his artistic progenitor Alice Neel - the focus is on the foreground, among colorfully patterned fabrics, rugs, and upholstery. Eschewing deep perspective in favor of an almost claustrophobic flatness, Kalenderian reveals his world directly to the viewer, presenting his lounging, often melancholic friends and family members enmeshed with their domestic spaces. None of the figures look directly at us, but all of them seem to be in contact with us; we are the witnesses of their existence. With a fold-out on the book´s back cover that features an essay by LA Weekly art critic Doug Harvey.