OPENING RECEPTION
FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 2026
5-8 PM

ON VIEW
JUNE 19 - JULY 18, 2026

FOR INQUIRES
Please contact hello@chefasprojects.com

Chefas Projects is delighted to welcome artist Emma Gerig for her debut exhibition at the gallery with Reversed Statue. Drawing from sketches of Michelangelo's non-finito sculptures, Emma Gerig's newest body of work explores the unfinished as both subject and method. Retranslating Michelangelo's incomplete figures into paint, these works inhabit a space between emergence and dissolution, where forms surface, fragment, and recede.

Rooted in experiences of dreaming and sleep paralysis, the paintings occupy a liminal territory between consciousness and unconsciousness. Through shifting imagery and layered surfaces, Gerig creates works that resist closure, embracing uncertainty, vulnerability, and transformation.

Central to Gerig's practice is an ongoing study of craft. Her work emerges through a conversation between material reality and imagination, the tangible properties of paint and the possibilities of what it might become. Narrative, dream logic, and material inquiry converge to create images that function as contemporary parables.

Recurring animal forms and disembodied limbs explore themes of intimacy, longing, and contradiction. These symbols reflect both the desire to be loved and the intrusion of care, inviting viewers into worlds where tenderness and discomfort coexist.

Emma Gerig received her MFA from Oregon College of Art and Craft in 2018 and studied previously at Goshen College in Indiana. She is a recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant. Her work has been featured in New American Paintings, ArtMaze Magazine, and on the cover of Poetry Northwest. Gerigscott has presented solo exhibitions with Froelick Gallery in Portland, Oregon.

ARTWORK

INSTALLATION IMAGES

© CHEFAS PROJECTS
Photo credit: Mario Gallucci