b chehayeb

puro tejano tomboy still life, 2024

Fragments of b chehayeb’s childhood memories are arranged in the painting titled puro tejano tomboy still life (2024). Though floating in an amorphous psychological space, chehayeb presents larger symbols positioned near one another and also closer to the viewer—an indexical still life grouping that stands out compositionally amongst chehayeb’s many moody landscapes and “memory maps.” Letters for passing notes, pink chones—a genderless Spanish word for underwear—with a floral motif, trophies from winning softball games, a candle, and other less legible objects encapsulate the archetype of growing up as a Mexican-American tomboy in Texas. Puro Tejano translates to pure—authentic and powerful—Tex-Mex and describes a cache of cultural references ranging from music to food to clothing to a sense of regional pride and identity. "even if you’re making work about the present or the future you’re making work with memory. using memory in some way to recognize everything around you, it’s inevitable. you have to use what you know to make anything. where did you get your vocabulary? everything was learned somewhere and as an artist i like asking where it came from, what room were you in? what color was the sky every time you named a thing?" —b chehayeb

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