YELLENA JAMES
WEIGHTLESS
OCTOBER 20 - NOVEMBER 18, 2023
OPENING RECEPTION
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20th, 2023
5-8 PM
ON VIEW
OCTOBER 20 - NOVEMBER 18, 2023
FOR INQUIRIES
Please contact hello@chefasprojects.com
Flexible installment plans are available upon request
PRESS
Opening Night Photos
Between her masterful brush strokes and brilliant use of color, Yellena James invokes a completely vivid and unmistakable world. To enter this terrain is to immerse yourself in a thriving landscape of pure majesty and seemingly endless dimension. It's all rendered with such epic precision that the viewer can practically feel the life-forms moving across the canvas, an entire abyss at their disposal. Imparting relaxation and awe to equal effect, her paintings generate boundless discovery and the perfect visual escape.
"In my work, I always strive to create a sense of levity on the canvas,” says James. “I focus on environments that exist within alien atmospheres and forms that thrive within a diverse range of external forces. For my show, Weightless, I'm working in an array of different mediums and substrates, including acrylic paints, gouaches, and inks, on canvas, clayboard, and primed wood panels. Each piece is done intuitively without planning or sketching. And there is a moment that arises while making each piece, when I can see the final steps clearly and the artwork begins to reveal itself. In those moments, every hint of pressure dissipates. It lifts, all of it. And I am weightless.”
Born and raised in Sarajevo, BiH, Yellena James (b. 1977) attended art school while living in Bosnia during her teenage years. In the midst of her art studies, the Bosnian Civil War took place and in 1995, James and her immediate family moved to Orlando, Florida as refugees. After gaining her Bachelor of Arts in painting and graphic design from the University of Central Florida, she eventually made her way to Portland, Oregon. James’ work combines complex abstract forms into dazzling images which take on lives of their own. Her colorful arrangements of organic shapes and tangled lines are at once floral and alien, organic and sci-fi. Each intimate world she creates seems to possess its own ethos and its own special ability to radiate emotion. Yellena James has exhibited her artwork nationally and internationally and is represented by Chefas Projects in Portland, Oregon.
The opening reception for Weightless will be held at Chefas Projects on Friday, October 20th from 5-8pm. Chefas Projects is located in Portland, Oregon at 134 SE Taylor Street on the first floor of the Taylor Works building. The exhibition will be on view through November 18, 2023 and is free and open to the public.
INSTALLATION VIEW
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Photo credit: Mario Gallucci