Curated by Deven Truong

Exhibition: April 15th - June 4th, 2026

Reception: April 21st, 2026, 4:00 - 6:00pm

Show Statement

Color is one of the most important tools we possess. It describes the undecipherable and sets backdrops for our memories. As essential as it is, we tend to hide from color, block it, polarize it, in fear of showing our true selves. What would it look like if we didn’t filter ourselves, and embraced the exposure instead?

[Un]polarizer acts as a prism. It is an opportunity for the unfiltered light of human experiences to be shared in a visible color spectrum. Each work’s use of color showcases glimpses of memories, cultures, and experiences offered by the artists. In a world so scared of color, we hope to light a signal for those who can’t.

From intricately crafted ceramics and sculpture-work by Adelina Ruvelcaba and Benjamin Ewing to the textured works of Viktor Kobylianski and Charlie Salas-Humara to the jewelry and paintings of Tyler Young, this show aims to highlight a spectrum of expressive, personal works.

Artist Bios & Statements

Benjamin Ewing is a multidisciplinary artist located in Portland, Oregon. With a background in editorial photography and print design, his transition into painting and sculpture is rooted in the same visual principles. He continues to sift these concepts through new mediums. In the attempt to better understand the power of materials and the way in which they can inform one another. Ultimately, providing a language in which we may better understand ourselves. Oil painting, stone sculpture & lighting design are of his current focus.

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Viktor Kobylianski (b. 1995) is a Ukrainian-born artist based in the United States.

He works with materials commonly associated with construction, including mineral dust, cement slurries, pigments, and sand applied to raw fabric, with the image formed through imprinted residue after removal.

His practice is process-driven and subtractive. Applied directly by hand, he establishes conditions in which the materials cure, settle, and imprint, allowing their behavior to determine the final residue embedded within the surface. Individual surfaces are often stitched together, assembling separate fragments into a single work. Removed from their functional role, these materials shift from utility to memory. Positioned between object and surface, presence and absence, the work invites slow looking and operates as a physical record rather than an image.

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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. He is represented by Nationale.

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Adelina Ruvalcaba is a mixed media visual artist and emerging curator in the Pacific Northwest. She enjoys reading fiction novels and exploring the forest with her dog. She was born and raised in the Central Valley of California and is of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent. After moving to Oregon, she found herself at a loss with her identity. This realization sent her down a path of rediscovery. Ruvalcaba’s creative practice highlights the labor of love from one’s home, especially the kitchen. Influenced by her deep-rooted love for prehistoric cave art, she reimagined fossils by transforming them into ceramic dinnerware. She also creates immersive installations that help tell the intimate stories of her fossils, offering viewers a sense of belonging and space for reflection.

“I am an amalgamation of all my ancestors who came before me. From their tears to their smiles, to their broad shoulders and their curly hair. I carry fragments of them within me, just as the grandmothers before me did. My work is rooted in rediscovering identity, ancestry, diaspora, and the intimate role of domestic labor. I reflect on the time-intensive processes required to produce such loving, flavorful meals. Through my creative practice, I seek to reconnect with humanity’s ancient past to understand what makes me human. I recontextualize cultural materials to mirror the labor that extends from the kitchen into the soul. Burning food into clay is my way of immortalizing precious memories and cultural knowledge before they are lost to time.” - Adelina Ruvalcaba

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Tyler Young is a Portland based artist who received his BA in ceramics and jewelry and a minor in philosophy from San Diego State University. Young’s interest in philosophy has led them to explore themes around identity and the various social systems that inform how they are cognizant of their identity. Young’s practice takes an interdisciplinary approach by combining multiple mediums and art disciplines, such as fine art painting and sculpture, with jewelry.

“I am interested in the objects and moments that hold personal significance to us. Specifically, I am attracted to the mundane and banal objects that we wear or keep that reflect our own identity and how our identity can be personified through these objects. Personally, the art I create is fundamental in understanding my identity. Gestural painting has always been a meditative process that allows me to transform the surfaces and forms of the materials I work on. Overall, the art I create studies abstract notions of identity by transforming craft objects with gestural painting and sculpture techniques that I identify with.” - Tyler Young