Mirror Mirror, Mira Mira

Laura Camila Medina and Angela Maree Saenz

curated by Luiza Lukova

January 8–30, 2022

In Mirror Mirror, Mira Mira, Portland-based artists Laura Camila Medina and Angela Maree Saenz present a compelling suite of unreleased paintings, drawings and monotype prints that inspire conversation around community, care and connection. Medina’s otherworldly watercolor illustrations depict anthropomorphic qualities - a face, a body, a hand - that help situate the image while also transporting viewers to a magical, indistinct space entirely of her crafting. In turn, Saenz’s honest and vibrant oil on canvas portraits instantly place viewers within a comfortable frame of intimacy, evading hyper-realism with their freeform, monochromatic backgrounds and stylized brush strokes. Separately and in tandem, the artists present to viewers world-building techniques that create meaningful narratives meant to reimagine and question the world they inhabit.

Medina and Saenz harness a power of transformation with these pieces that reflects inwards, pulling from intimate thoughts and emotions, and outwards, hoping to channel a similar self within their audience. They imply the familiar manner in which faces, objects and patterns can transport the gallery-goer to a dreamlike place and state. The works seem to ask, how do we all relate? What might be possible if we experienced no barriers or obstacles to our personal dreams?

Biography of Artists: 

Laura Camila Medina (b. 1995) is an interdisciplinary artist born in Bogotá, Colombia. Her work utilizes a unique assemblage of traditional mediums within digitally constructed spaces to create immersive analogies of identity and memory composition. Her work has been exhibited at the Center for Contemporary Art & Culture, PLANETA New York, Fuller Rosen Gallery, Wieden + Kennedy, the Portland Art Museum, and with the Nat Turner Project. She was awarded the New Media Fellowship at Open Signal, Artist in Residence at the Living School of Art, IPRC Artists & Writers in Residence Program, ACRE Residency, and most recently the Centrum Emerging Artist Residency. She earned her BFA at the Pacific Northwest College of Art and is currently based in Portland, OR.

Angela Saenz (b. 1996 Omaha, NE) creates paintings and drawings rooted in personal observation of the human experience. Under the influence of 20th century painters, her works aim to address and question the traditions of portraiture as it relates to intimacy, identity, and humanity. Saenz received her B.F.A. from Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR (2018). In recent years, she has participated in a residency with the Living School of Art, Portland, OR (2019-2020), and IPRC's BIPOC residency, Portland, OR (2020). She has exhibited work throughout Portland, OR, at Wieden + Kennedy, CCAC, and Black Fish Gallery. Saenz lives and works in Portland, OR.

Maracuya con Leche is a collaborative project created by artists and educators, Angela Saenz and Laura Camila Medina. In 2020, Maracuya con Leche presented the mural, “IMAGINE:IMAGINA”, through the support of PSAA’s Ladies up Mural project and the IPRC. Maracuya con Leche was awarded the IPRC’s BIPOC Artists and Writers Residency in 2020 and the Caldera Artist Residency for 2022. They have exhibited with Stelo Arts, Carnation Contemporary, OV Project Space, and Tiny Thumb Gallery. In 2018, they presented their project during the PNCA Art+Feminism Wikipedia Editathon. The first volume of their publication lives in the Albert Solheim Library special collections.