# New Works by Lavaughan Jenkins, Mario Joyce, Raffi Kalenderian, Kiriakos Tompolidis

URL: https://vielmetter.com/exhibitions/new-works-by-lavaughan-jenkins-mario-joyce-raffi-kalenderian-kiriakos-tompolidis/
January 13 — March 9, 2024 · Greenhouse · Artists: Lavaughan Jenkins, Raffi Kalenderian, Mario Joyce

**Installation photo credit: Brica Wilcox**

**Opening reception: Saturday, January 13, 4-6PM**

Vielmetter Los Angeles presents a selection of new works by Lavaughan Jenkins, Mario Joyce, Raffi Kalenderian, and Kiriakos Tompolidis in the Greenhouse, January 13 – March 9, 2024.

Included in the exhibition are recent paintings on panel by Boston-based Lavaughan Jenkins — highlighting the artist’s manner of exuberant impasto and ingenious sense of color — Jenkins debuts his “love portal” series. Inspired by specific texts by James Baldwin and Nikita Gill the love portals act as a record of moments and reminders of lost loves and past relationships. The varying color spectrums and radiating vortexes within each work are carefully calibrated in resonance with each of the painting’s specific memories, which the titles then allude to.

Also on view are works by Los Angeles-based artist Mario Joyce, whose figurative paintings are rich in texture and meaning, informed by his autobiographical and historical research. Comprised of carefully sourced vintage collage materials, soil from his rural Ohio family farm, and oil and acrylic paint on canvas, the artist’s alluring compositions reveal a poetic and personal sense of storytelling about the experiences of growing up in marginalized communities.

Continuing his distinct exploration of the possibilities of portraiture, Los Angeles-based artist Raffi Kalenderian presents an array of new smaller-format oil paintings on canvas. Kalenderian’s radiant depictions of friends and fellow artists in various poses and environments capture moments accentuated by a celebratory moodiness as if windows of intimacy where the artist, the subject, and the viewer commingle amidst textured details, bold colors, and elaborate geometrical patterns ever-balancing the real and the surreal.

The presentation is rounded out with the paintings of Berlin-based Kiriakos Tompolidis — whose paintings incorporate references to his German-Greek identity, incorporating motifs, patterns, and elements from his upbringing and family lineage, as well as his current life and objects associated with classical Greek culture. Tompolidis weaves together a narrative that explores his cultural heritage, as well as fosters empathy and understanding towards the immigrant experience and our present-day global migration crisis. The flattened perspective and figures throughout his compositions further evoke Greek theater, both in the aesthetic of two-dimensional staging and by directly addressing the audience with soliloquies and asides.