In Mirror Mirror, Mira Mira, Portland-based artists Laura Camila Medina and Angela Maree Saenz present a compelling suite of unrealeased paintings, drawings and monotype prints that inspire conversation around community, care and connection. Medina’s otherworldly watercolor illustrations depict anthropomorphic qualities - a face, a body, a hand - that help situate the image while also transporting viewers to a magical, indistinct space entirely of her crafting. In turn, Saenz’s honest and vibrant oil on canvas portraits instantly place viewers within a comfortable frame of intimacy, evading hyper-realism with their freeform, monochromatic backgrounds and stylized brush strokes. Seperately and in tandem, the artists present viewers world-building techniques that create meaningful naratives meant to reimagine and question the world they inhabit.

Medina and Saenz harness a power of transformation with these pieces that reflects inwards, pulling from intimate thoughts and emotions, and outwards, hoping to channel a similar self within their audience. They imply the familiar manner in which faces, objects, and patterns can transport the gallery-goer to a dreamlike place and state. The works seem to ask, how do we all relate? What might be possible if we experienced no barriers or obstacles to our personal dreams?

Written by Luiza Lukova