The Buchmann Gallery is delighted to announce its first solo show of works by Raffi Kalenderian (*1981, lives in Los Angeles); Kalenderian´s works were first featured by the gallery in the exhibition Crystal World in 2010.

Raffi Kalenderian´s pictures show people from his circle of friends whom he portrays in relaxed, everyday poses. The specific situation during the portrait sitting plays an important role in the creative process and it helps to capture the flowing boundary between the physical and the mental world of the person portrayed. 
Kalenderian emphasises the interior world of the person he paints through the elements he adds to the figure. Wildly flourishing plants can be seen as a metaphor for a spirited, irrepressible personality, and abstract or surreal elements underscore the predominant mood of the picture.
Often he shows the model in several poses in a single painting. With this compositional approach he succeeds in capturing multiple emotional states in one picture, and at the same time portrays a sequence of events. The motif of the doppelganger indicates the various facets of the sitter´s personality.

Raffi Kalenderian -

The Buchmann Gallery is delighted to announce its first solo show of works by Des Hughes (*1970 in Birmingham); Hughes´ works were first featured by the gallery in the exhibition Crystal World in 2010.

The five sculptures, which were created specifically for this exhibition, are reminiscent of pieces of medieval armour and weaponry. The four rust-red, helmet-like objects and the ensemble of two larger-than-life figures dressed in chainmail appear on closer inspection to be too fragile and detailed to be made of forged iron. 
The material is only 3mm thick, as becomes visible in the areas where the hollow interior of the sculpture is revealed. In a complex process, Hughes shapes woollen scarves, woollen hats and plaster bandages and casts them in resin reinforced with fibreglass and iron powder. The resulting sculptures are simultaneously powerful and surprisingly fragile. 
Like the language of his materials, the shapes Hughes uses have a deep ambivalence: a tree stump is not made of wood, the chainmail shirt is not iron and a mask is a sock. Des Hughes creates a narrative and ironic figuration which develops its very own, distinctive and highly recognisable pictorial language.

Des Hughes -