NICOLE WILLIFORD
MADONNA MADONNA
APRIL 5 - MAY 4, 2024
OPENING RECEPTION
FRIDAY, APRIL 5th, 2024
5-8 PM
ON VIEW
APRIL 5 - MAY 4, 2024
FOR INQUIRIES
Please contact hello@chefasprojects.com
Flexible installment plans are available upon request
Opening Night Photos
photo credit: Andrea Lonas
Chefas Projects is thrilled to introduce Madonna, Madonna, the solo debut of Portland-based painter Nicole Williford. Trained in traditional portraiture, Williford’s work spans from tight realism to abstract color fields. Painting is a practice of meditation for the artist as well as a method of processing the overwhelming stimulation present in day-to-day life, her work revolving around personal narratives, nostalgia, and identity.
In Madonna, Madonna, Williford explores the cyclical nature of motherhood through paintings of personal family photographs. These paintings follow subjects from girlhood into matriarchy, with each piece examining the journey's respective faces and phases. Rendering loose and refined marks as a mode of expression, she mimics the fleeting and emotional memories of childhood and family life.
In the conjuring of these moments, Williford alternates between clarity and obscurity, expanding upon cherished memories while leaving harsher details purposefully unfinished. Meanwhile, the surreal tedium of family life prevails, touching down across beauty and grief—sometimes within a single tapestry—to create a unifying theme. Now a mother, Williford is also a daughter, and so the cycle continues but in a circular and self-reflective motion.
The opening reception for Madonna, Madonna will take place at Chefas Projects on Friday, April 5, 2024, from 5-8 pm. Located in Portland, Oregon, at 134 SE Taylor Street on the first floor of the Taylor Works building, Chefas Projects invites the public to explore this unique exhibition, which will be on view through May 4, 2024.
This work was made possible by the Regional Arts and Culture Council.
ARTWORK
© CHEFAS PROJECTS
Photo credit: Mario Gallucci