CHARLIE SALAS-HUMARA // Somewhere Off 290

On view July 6–September 8, 2024
Opening reception Saturday, July 6 (3–5pm)

Nationale is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by Portland-based visual and musical artist Charlie Salas-Humara, opening July 6. Somewhere Off 290 is Salas-Humara’s second solo exhibition with the gallery and expands on his poetically abstract oeuvre. The works on display are odes to memories cherished and memories forgotten.

Secret gardens bloom in the colorful canvases of Cantigny and Acres wherein languid brushstrokes form the expressive outlines of floral clusters in vivid color. This new collection diverges from his earlier simplified and tonal canvases to incorporate a broader palette and more overt figural representation that mirror the intricacies of memory itself. Salas-Humara has proven a sharp talent for commemorating the “in-between spaces” of life and his suggestive employ of impasto hints at layers of feelings meticulously unveiled or purposefully obscured. Each piece weaves its own narrative—at times difficult, at times whimsical—and offers viewers a glimpse into the fragmented realms of the artist’s subconscious. Works such as Black Box and Eisenhower Expressway are labyrinthine in their story-telling, flattening foreground and background into one, and free-associating objects, landmarks, and characters on a single plane. In this manner, recollections are distorted and compressed, akin to the weight of time upon our past experiences.

By way of color, mark-making, and beauty, Somewhere Off 290 is a nostalgic reflection of the illusive human experience. What is a deeply personal tribute can also read as a universal attempt at reconciliation between the past and the present.

Charlie Salas-Humara is a painter and musician living in Portland, OR. Self-taught, he began working with acrylic, oil, charcoal, and collage as a means of expressing his love of dance and music through art. Salas-Humara has toured extensively in the United States, Europe, Russia, and China (with The Planet The and under the moniker of Panther), and has shown his visual work in Portland, OR, Springfield, OR, Los Angeles, and New York.

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