Presque Vu

In his relief etchings, Extraction and Presque Vu, Chen creates interactions between differing visual languages, at times shifting what they are suppose to mean: documentary photography (the past) and diagrammatic drawing (projective). Through overlapping and adjacencies of visual-symbolical categories, Chen's imagery explicates personal narratives and trans-cultural dynamics. These prints unearth the emotional landscape of a Chinese-American family's many generations' possible futures and pasts.

Presque Vu represents the artist's father and uncle, two silent men markedly unlike one another in their aspirations who, nonetheless, shared untold affinities.