OCHI is pleased to participate in the 10^th edition of New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) New York to take place Thursday, May 2 through Sunday, May 5 at 548 West 22^nd Street in Chelsea’s gallery district. A VIP preview will take place on Thursday, May 2^nd from 10:00AM to 4:00PM EST. The gallery will feature new work by b chehayeb, Lilian Martinez, and Kristy Moreno in Booth 3.10 located on the third floor.

Drawing from personal and anecdotal experiences, chehayeb, Martinez, and Moreno each explore their multivalent Latinx identities through distinct strategies of abstraction and figuration. Referencing a plethora of popular, regionally specific, and niche sub-cultures, these artists celebrate the places and communities that helped them to forge new paths while redefining systems of value.

b chehayeb (b. 1990, Dallas, TX) makes paintings that focus on the reconstruction of failed memories and sensory experiences warped and informed by nostalgia, gender, language, and cultural hybridity. Semi-abstract fields of luscious texture, gesture, color, and ambiance are perforated with chehayeb’s growing lexicon of symbols—cowboy boots, stars, horses, snakes, ladders, furniture, and the letter ñ—as anecdotes, spaces, and emotions emerge from the paint.

Kristy Moreno (b. 1991, Inglewood, CA) builds sculptural vessels of female figures standing in solidarity, resistance, friendship, and love. Rooted in feminist cartoons from the 1990s and the female role models in her own family, Moreno’s ceramics flaunt individual styles that quote an array of historical sources, including 1970s LA punk fashion, Chicanx lowrider culture, 1950s beehive updos, the bold geometric prints of her mother’s wardrobe, and Chola staples like nameplate jewelry. Collectively, the individual styles, expressions, and features of these figures create imagined personas of radicalized future ancestors.

Lilian Martinez (b. 1986, Chicago, IL) makes paintings that depict bright and playful scenes of women comfortably situated within a world of agency, leisure, creativity, and abundance. Martinez’s protagonists practice mindful indulgence, follow their intuition, and live their best lives. With generous curves and radiant brown skin, these femme figures visualize their desires before manifesting them into reality—they admire sculptures in open air art museums, relax at home with their pets, get dressed to go out, or muse over produce at their local farmer’s market. Embodying a collective desire for brown women to occupy space peacefully, Martinez’s paintings proffer positive representations of bodies like her own as they celebrate inclusivity and classlessness.