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.
Chen has over 5 years of experience as a visual arts educator
in post-secondary institutions and private and non-profit arts 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 current 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.
