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.

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