OPENING RECEPTION
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17th, 2023
5-8 PM

ON VIEW
FEBRUARY 17 - MARCH 18, 2023

FOR INQUIRIES
Please contact hello@chefasprojects.com

Opening Night Photos

Chefas Projects is delighted to present Mind Song, a group exhibit curated by Angela Saenz and features new work by four emerging artists; Courtney Knight, Grace Stott, Marcelina Gonzales, and Nia Musiba.

“My intent for this exhibit was to present four different artist's creative truths together.”, states Saenz. “Each artist was selected based on their strong sense of self and their unique approach to the figure through medium, style, and expression. The result is unfiltered yet harmonious in aesthetic.”

Courtney Knight
Courtney Knight studied Illustration in Boston, MA. She's been in Portland since 2015 and just now moved to Brooklyn. Lately she tends to explore topics of playfulness, intimacy, sex, jealousy, romance and fertility. Courtney has been making commission work, small publications, local shows, started a textile brand named Coury Cloth and a collaborative illustration magazine called Medium Orange ~ she would like to expand her creative community ~

I wanted to explore play, playfulness, and most importantly what I imagine men do alone with themselves. What do they do?!
I wanted to daydream about others daydreaming. A sweetness with an edge. 
I seek the eagerness to riff, to geek out on something, to ooze over it. Dripping. 
When's the last time you were goofin’ around?
Lightness…
Masturabating!
A lil tug a war. 
Only fun until you sleep, that’s hedonism baby!
Must have an openness to be a fool, an openness to surprise and o la la am I surprised!
Let's play. 

Grace Stott
Grace Stott (b. 1990, Princeton, NJ, she/her) Grace Stott is a graduate of Tufts University and SMFA with additional educational experience at CalArts. She has shown in numerous galleries and art spaces around the United States, including Redux Contemporary Art Center, Charleston, Dinner Gallery and Mrs., New York, and Fuller Rosen Gallery, Oregon. Grace was a 2017 artist-in-residence at Bunker Projects in Pittsburgh, PA, and is an active member of the Goodyear Arts Collective, an artist-led non-profit residency. She has organized curatorial and community projects in conjunction with her studio practice. You can also see her work in various public art installations around Charlotte, NC.

“I am a sculptor working primarily in ceramics and mixed-media installations with undulating puzzle-like pieces conceptualized through free association. I am drawn to the unpredictable nature of clay and how it creates a magical separation between me and the end result. The way the glaze melts feels like a gift. I find inspiration in the contrast between this ancient material and contemporary aesthetics. I strive to elevate the ordinary and infuse it with surreal playfulness using bright colors and pop imagery to create a dream world of femme empowerment, cuteness, and decadence, where cats reign supreme. My experiences and identity as a multicultural woman and mother drive my art. I'm forever searching for the uncanny feelings, and the heart swells that shape our lives, and I hope to create a world that is both fantastical and relatable.”

Marcelina Gonzalez
Marcelina Gonzales (b.1989, Brownsville, Texas) received a BA from the University of Texas at Brownsville in 2013. Her work attempts to reconstruct fragmented and cloudy recollections of personal memories and experiences as a Latina while coming of age along the border and the product of two cultures to preserve and celebrate a time and place that was home. Her work has been exhibited at ELA 26 Mexi-Arte Museum, Austin, TX (2022), Third Coast National Biennial (2022) Corpus Christi, TX, Field Projects, New York (2019); the 6th Annual Artspace III Regional Juried Exhibition, Fort Worth (2019); ONE: Annual Emerging Artist Exhibit, Glen Ellyn, IL (2018); Freight Gallery, San Antonio (2018); 500X Gallery, Dallas (2018); and the 40 under 40 exhibition at Fort Works Art, Fort Worth (2017).

Marcelina Gonzales is a resin collage artist born and raised in Brownsville, Texas. She uses bright and playful narratives to reconstruct the cloudy and fragmented memories of her time growing up and coming of age along the border. 

The Rio Grande Valley is a unique place for its fusion of Mexican and American culture and traditions but is regarded with contempt by outlets that promote its poverty, lack of education, and danger. “Through the telling of stories that are sometimes embarrassing or personally traumatic, I am working to reconcile the shame triggered by the circumstances and external barriers set by my perceived identity, ability, and class.” Gonzales uses personal accounts infused with love and humor to explore the complexities of identity, culture, and womanhood to transform the experiences into messages of celebration and empowerment.

Nia Musiba
Nia musiba (she/they) is a multidisciplinary creative based in Portland, Oregon with a lifelong commitment to diversifying art and design spaces. Since 2019, this has manifested in community-based projects, public art, and taking up space within her personal practice in an attempt to inspire others who hold marginalized identities to take up space of their own. Musiba is interested in collaboration, experimentation, question-asking, friend-making, and above all else, dreaming big. She views her figurative works as a vehicle to reclaim the tenderness and complexities of her own identity as well as an opportunity to depict Black and brown bodies that have historically been flattened, brutalized, and hyper-sexualized within art and media.

The opening reception for Mind Song will be held at Chefas Projects on Friday, February 17th from 5-8pm. Masks and social distancing practices are encouraged. 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 March 18, 2023 and is free and open to the public.

ARTWORK