Sichen Grace Chen (SG) – Artist Biography
Sichen Grace Chen, or “SG”, is a painter and illustrator who resides as a first-generation Chinese-Canadian immigrant and settler on the unceded, traditional, and ancestral territories of the Máthxwi (Matsqui), q̓ʷɑ:n̓ƛ̓ən̓ (Kwantlen), q̓ic̓əy (Katzie), and Se’mya’me’ (Semiahmoo) First Nations, also known as Langley. She has over five years of experience as a visual arts educator in post-secondary institutions and arts and culture organizations, providing a holistic curriculum of discovery-based learning and skill-building for all ages. Symbolized by the pairing of her Chinese name, Sī Chén (思辰), and her English name, Grace, Chen is captivated by the complex relationships between seemingly disparate ideas, objects, and identities. Growing up in Chengdu, China, for the first few years of her life and often moving between cities in British Columbia has led her to garner an appreciation for the sentimentality and physicality of natural and synthetic landscapes and entities, and everything in between. Her graduate thesis explores the environment of the Pacific Northwest and the interconnectivity between the human, more-than-human, and technological, with water as the through line.
She holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and is pursuing her MFA at Emily Carr University of Art + Design (ECU). She is the co-founder and creative director of Atelier Aloera.
思辰 Sichen Grace Chen (SG) – 艺术家简介
思辰 (Sichen Grace Chen)，简称“SG”，是一位画家和插画家，作为第一代华裔加拿大移民和定居者，她居住在Máthxwi (Matsqui)、q̓ʷɑ:n̓ƛ̓ən̓ (Kwantlen)、q̓ic̓əy (Katzie) 和Se’mya’me’ (Semiahmoo) 原住民未割让的、传统的和祖传的领地上，也称为兰里(Langley)。她在高等教育机构和艺术文化组织担任视觉艺术教育工作者超过五年，为各年龄段的学生提供基于发现的学习和技能培养的整体课程。思辰的中文名Sī Chén（思辰）和英文名Grace的组合象征着她对看似截然不同的思想、物体和身份之间的复杂关系的着迷。她在中国成都长大，早年经常往返于加拿大卑诗省的各个城市。这让她对自然、人造景观、实体以及介于两者之间的一切事物的感性和实体性产生了浓厚的兴趣。她的研究生论文探讨了太平洋西北地区的环境，以及人类、超人类与科技之间的互联互通，并以水为贯穿线。
她拥有罗德岛设计学院 (RISD) 的艺术学士学位，目前正在温哥华艾米丽卡尔艺术与设计大学 (ECU) 攻读艺术硕士学位。她是 Atelier Aloera 的联合创始人兼创意总监。
Sichen Grace Chen – Artist Statement
Amphibious: A Return to Self and Place
“My work explores the interconnectivity and sentimentality of human, more-than-human, and technological landscapes and entities, weaving together micro and macro ecologies as sites of liminality, memory, and emotional resonance. By merging different ecologies with similar patterns, new understandings of bodies, ecosystems, and relationships emerge.
Through additive and subtractive methods of painting, such as dry-brushing, glazing, and wiping with rags, I instill a sense of deep time and ephemerality. I begin with underpaintings in watercolour, introducing randomness and microbial and dreamlike patterns. Afterward, I paint using oils and acrylics to enhance the movement of the water, producing compositions that feel fluid and suspended in time and space. Pareidolia, a phenomenon in which the mind perceives meaningful patterns or images in random stimuli, is one way I untangle truth and present my unconscious memories in their most authentic forms. Through the act of painting, I process personal histories and interpersonal relationships, weaving together fragmented objects and spaces that speak to alchemy, mending, and rupture. My paintings capture the complex and symbiotic interplay between artist, material, and studio, paralleling the mechanisms of an ecosystem and serving as a respite from solastalgia— the grief one feels when one’s home environment is lost.
I draw upon Julie Mehretu’s multi-layered artworks that explore cartography, readability of the image, and sociopolitical issues through visual abstraction. Inka Essenhigh’s saturated paintings evoke animism through her transformation of landscapes into hybridized beings, inspiring my paintings that suggest the solution to the climate crisis is more-than-human and multifaceted.
By embracing ambiguity in scale and sense of place, I challenge viewers to recognize the patterns within nature, and themselves, and reconsider their relationship to the organic and mechanical ecologies that sustain us.”
– Sichen Grace Chen 2025
思辰 Sichen Grace Chen – 艺术家陈述
【双栖：自我与空间的回归】
我的作品探索人类、超人类以及科技景观与实体之间的互联互通与感性，将微观和宏观生态交织在一起，作为阈限性、记忆和情感共鸣的场所。我通过将不同的生态与相似的模式融合，对身体、生态系统和人际关系产生了新的理解。
我通过加减法的绘画方法，例如干刷、上釉和用抹布擦拭，我注入了一种深邃的时间感和短暂性。我先用水彩打底，引入随机性、微生物和梦幻般的图案。之后，我使用油彩和丙烯颜料来增强水的流动感，创作出流畅、悬浮于时空的构图。空想性错视 (Pareidolia) 是一种大脑在随机刺激中感知到有意义的图案或图像的现象，这是我解开真相并以最真实的形式呈现潜意识记忆的一种方式。通过绘画，我处理个人历史和人际关系，将碎片化的物体和空间编织在一起。这些作品探讨着炼金术、修补和断裂等方式。我的画作捕捉了艺术家、材料和工作室之间复杂而共生的相互作用，与生态系统的机制相呼应，也成为人们在失去家园时所感受到的乡愁——一种慰藉的喘息。
我借鉴了朱莉·梅赫雷图（Julie Mehretu）的多层次艺术作品，这些作品通过视觉抽象探索制图学、图像的可读性和社会政治问题。因卡·埃森海伊（Inka Essenhigh）饱和的绘画通过将风景转化为混合生物，唤起了万物有灵论，这启发了我的绘画创作，这些绘画表明气候危机的解决方案是超越人类的，是多方面的。
通过拥抱尺度和地点感的模糊性，我挑战观者去认识自然和自身内在的模式，并重新思考它们与维持我们生存的有机和机械生态系统之间的关系。
– Sichen Grace Chen 2025
Sichen Grace Chen – CV
AMPHIBIOUS
A Return to Self and Place – Paintings by Sichen Grace Chen
Opening July 5th, 2025, 2-4pm
https://openingsg.eventbrite.ca
Artist Talk: July 9th, 2025, 6-8pm
Exhibition: July 5 – 24, 2025
Mon-Fri 10am-5pm or by appointment here.
Lipont Gallery is excited to present AMPHIBIOUS – A Return to Self and Place, a solo exhibition featuring the works of Langley and Vancouver-based artist Sichen Grace Chen, also known as “SG”. Chen explores the interconnectedness of human, more-than-human, and technological realms, focusing on spaces of memory and emotional resonance.
Chen’s early years were marked by constant movement between different places such as Chengdu, China, British Columbia, and Rhode Island, where she lived and studied. This was her initial experience of self–fluid, adapting, and constantly re-forming. Currently, she lives in Langley, and her artistic practice, studies, and creations are deeply rooted in Vancouver. Here, her body, mind, and spirit are re-converging, creating a sense of wholeness, a true return to self within a defined time and space. This “coming home to herself,” this return to essence, resonates deeply with Chen’s paintings.
Like her abstract, fiery forms resembling complex organisms or a nebula, pulsating with vibrant orange and red hues against a monochromatic background, her journey has been one of intense energy and organic growth. The interwoven strands and tendrils in her work mirror the tangled network of experiences that have shaped her own return, creating a sense of movement. The vastness evoked in her paintings, like outer space or a deep ocean, reflects the immensity of the inner, emotional and cerebral landscape she has traversed.
This sense of return extends beyond the personal. She thinks of water and its inherent fluidity and its fundamental connection to all life. Our species, intrinsically linked to every other life form, cannot survive in isolation. This realization underscores the profound interconnectedness of all things, a constant flow, much like water, that binds us to creatures beyond the human and the very essence of our shared existence. Chen’s luminous, star-shaped forms and swirling, celestial-like formations, suggestive of dynamic energy, capture this sense of mystery and wonder. Even the simple wooden bench, house, garden plants, and grassy landscape in some of her paintings, symbolizing a comfortable and domestic life, speak to the universal longing for belonging and connection.
The exhibition will be on view at Lipont Gallery from July 5 to July 24, 2025, with a public opening reception on Saturday July 5th, from 2-4 PM. An artist talk will take place on Wednesday July 9th, from 6-8 PM, offering audiences an opportunity to meet the artist and delve into her creative processes.
Exhibition Details
Dates: July 5 – 24, 2025
Hours: Mon – Fri 10am-5pm or by appointment
Address: Lipont Place, Room 218 (no elevator), 4211 No. 3 Road, Richmond, BC, V6X 2C3
Admission: Free
Parking: Free on the south side of the building only.
Transit: Aberdeen Station
双栖 – 自我与空间的回归
陈思辰绘画展
开幕：2025年7月5日星期六 下午2:00 – 4:00时
https://openingsg.eventbrite.ca
艺术家讲座：2025年7月9日星期三晚6:00 – 8:00时
展览日期：2025年7月5日至24日
展览时间：周一至五10:00 – 5:00免费开放，或点此预约。
温哥华力邦美术馆 (Lipont Gallery) 荣幸举办现居加拿大兰里及温哥华的艺术家陈思辰(Sichen Grace Chen，艺名“SG”) 的个人绘画作品展【双栖 – 自我与空间的回归: 陈思辰绘画展】(AMPHIBIOUS – A Return to Self and Place – Paintings by Sichen Grace Chen)。陈探索人类、超人类以及科技领域之间的互联互通，聚焦于记忆与情感共鸣的空间。
陈早年辗转于中国成都、加拿大卑诗省以及她生活和学习的美国罗德岛州等地。这开启了她对自我迁徙、适应环境和不断重塑的最初体验。目前，她居住在加拿大兰里。她的艺术实践、学习和创作都深深扎根于加拿大温哥华地区。在这里，她的身心重新交融，创造出一种新的完整，在特定的时空里真正地回归自我。这种回归自我、回归本质的体验，与陈思辰的绘画作品产生了深刻的共鸣。
正如她作品中的抽象的、如同火焰般形态的复杂生物体或星云，在单色背景上跃动着鲜艳的橙色和红色，她的旅程充满了强烈的能量和有机的生长。交织的线条和卷须，映射着塑造她自身回归的错综复杂的人生经历的网络，营造出动感。她画作中唤起的浩瀚，如同外太空或深海，反映了她所探索的内在、情感和思维景观的无垠。
这种回归感超越了个人层面。她同时也思考水及其固有的流动性，以及水与所有生命的根本联系。我们人类与其他所有生命形式都息息相关，无法孤立地生存。这种认识强调了万物之间深刻的相互联系，一种如同水一样的恒常流动，将我们与人类以外的生物以及我们共同存在的本质联系在一起。她作品中闪耀的星星和旋转的天体，暗示着动态的能量，并捕捉到了神秘与奇妙的力量。即使是她一些画作中象征着舒适居家生活的简朴长椅、房屋、花园植物和草地，也表达了人们对归属感和联系的普遍渴望。
展览将于 2025 年7 月5至 24 日在加拿大力邦美术馆展出。开幕活动将于 7月 5日星期六下午 2:00时至 4:00 时举行，艺术家讲座将于 7月 9 日星期三晚6:00时至8:00时进行，为观众提供与艺术家见面并了解其创作过程的机会。
展览日期：2025年7月5日至24日
展览时间：周一至五10:00 – 5:00免费开放，或点此预约。
地址：Lipont Place, Rm218 (无电梯), 4211 No. 3 Road Richmond BC
楼南免费停车。请勿停楼北。
