The Generational Legacy
The artistic spirit of Ariel Agemian did not cease in 1963; it transformed into a living lineage. Across three generations, the Agemian-Raley family has preserved, curated, and reimagined the profound artistic fire passed down from Venice and Paris to contemporary America.
Annig Raley
Daughter & Custodian of the Master Collection
Ariel’s daughter, Annig Agemian Raley, grew up completely immersed in her father's creative workflow in Brooklyn, New York. As a child, she and her mother Maria directly served as the physical models for Agemian's world-renowned biblical tableaus and portraits of the Blessed Mother. Annig vividly recalls her father meticulously draping classical, ancient garments over them, elongating their postures to capture the exact spiritual weight he envisioned for his compositions.
Today, living in Glenwood Springs, Annig acts as the primary curator and protector of Ariel Agemian's surviving private collection. She has preserved thousands of his sketches, daily visual experiments, and pristine white-chalk-on-black-paper masterworks.
Annig Raley, Ariels Daughter's portrait, done by Agemian, in 1951.
Raley, with one of his works installed in CUSP Gallery, Newport, RI.
Zach Raley
Great-Grandson & Contemporary Visionary
Carrying the ancestral torch into the modern era is Ariel's great-grandson, Zach Raley, an incredibly artist in the Newport who is just starting on his journey within the Rhode Island art scene. Demonstrating a jaw-dropping technical maturity at a remarkably young age, Zach has gained national recognition, including Scholastic Art National Gold Medals and being named one of Art New England’s Top Ten Emerging Artists for 2025.
Exhibiting prominently with CUSP Gallery and active within the Newport Artist Collective, Zach's large-scale, intensely textured paintings explore the delicate, raw intersections of human emotion, psychological vulnerability, order, and chaos.
Zach will always look to his his great grandfather as a source of inspiration and legacy, picking up the torch in the role of Agemian's legacy and its preservation, using his own platform to promote him.