Miles McEnery Gallery is pleased to announce Bathers (Nothing Comes From Nothing), an exhibition of new paintings by Raffi Kalenderian, on view 8 May - 21 June at 511 West 22nd Street. Accompanying the exhibition is a fully illustrated digital publication featuring a text by Annie Armstrong.

Raffi Kalenderian is not an artist working in a vacuum. His practice thrives on dialogue, and over the past several years he has transformed his studio from a solitary space of production into a true artist’s salon—one that functions as a hub for community. From fashion designers and aspiring young artists to newcomers carving out futures in Los Angeles, his studio serves as a sanctuary for creativity and self-expression. Outside the studio, Kalenderian stages frequent pop-ups, group exhibitions, and events that celebrate artists within his orbit. His paintings are a continuation of this ethos, acting as records of the people he cares about (friends, family, and fleeting acquaintances alike). Each portrait is a testament to love and a ledger of connection.

Kalenderian is an artist deeply aware of his place within contemporary art, and acknowledges the influence of those who came before him. He may be painting his friends, but in this exhibition he’s doing so within one of painting’s oldest traditions—bathers. By placing people from his own life into this rich and historic visual language, he’s not just documenting them; he’s giving them a place in the canon. As he puts it, “If I am painting one of my friends, and if the friend sees it, and they are happy—alright, I did my job.”

As Annie Armstrong notes, “This is what Kalenderian calls the ‘jungle gym of the LA painting community’—a web of artists climbing, swinging, slipping off, and reappearing again. His paintings work like a visual oral history that is less  interested in hierarchy than in presence. ‘If you don’t remember someone,’ he says, ‘this is me saying you should.’”