Saturday, August 22 at 5 pm via Las Fotos Project

Las Fotos Project proudly presents: ⁠
All At Once: A Solo Show by Mia Bella Chavez⁠
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The photo collage series in All At Once: A Solo Show by Mia Bella Chavez results from an exercise of self-exploration to illustrate Mia Bella’s identity. Mia Bella’s love for working with her hands allows her to bring digital work into the tactile realm. By using only the photos that she has taken, Mia Bella immerses herself into a collaging process that reveals more about who she is. She appears as the participant, spectator and main character in surreal scenes that explore her ethnicity, locality, gender and sexuality.⁠
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Mia Bella creates digital still lifes that symbolize her layered identity as she experiences being a Queer, Latina living in Los Angeles. It begins with the LA River as the main setting of her collages. For her, it is a constant background “where life happens quickly as the day unfolds…and it feels like a playground filled with interesting things and creatures.” Through playful arrangements and attention to detail, Mia Bella feels like an artist playing different roles and incorporating aspects of her culture, family relationships and significant life decisions. ⁠
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Inspired by the works of Soo Kim, Johanna Goodman, and Raoul Hausman, Mia Bella seeks to find a balance between intention and experimentation. Mia Bella points to cultural references, societal standards and visual stereotypes by mixing elements of realism and abstraction. From somber tones to fields of color, eclectic facial expressions, exaggerated beauty marks and anthropomorphic objects, her stories come to life.

Just like Norman Rockwell’s Triple Self-Portrait, Mia Bella attempts to “experience the world, live in it, and try to simultaneously capture and collect all the information to articulate and make sense of it all.” Mia Bella’s visual arrangements are full of wonder, soul and social commentary, all at once. While various elements and twists are at play throughout her personal, multilayered creations, they carefully weave stories that as viewers we might interpret through our own unique imaginations.

https://www.facebook.com/events/las-fotos-project/all-at-once-a-solo-show-by-mia-bella-chavez/390048951974499/