Noumena and Other Spectralities
Phillip Chen: Prints and Paintings

APRIL 25 - MAY 30, 2025

EVENTS

ARTISTS’ RECEPTION
Friday, May 9, 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm 
Wege Gallery 

ARTIST LECTURE | PHILLIP CHEN
Saturday, May 10, 10:00 am - 11:30 am
Wege Gallery 

SATURDAY HOURS
Saturday, April 26, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Saturday, May 10, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Saturday, May 17, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Saturday, May 24, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm 

The Wege Gallery is proud to present Noumena and Other Spectralities | Phillip Chen: Prints and Paintings. Featuring varied art mediums and source materials from the artist’s collection, the exhibition unveils Chen’s enigmatic approach to image-making and his ongoing dialogue with the objects that untangle personal and familial histories and other states of affairs. 

Situated between two rationalities, Chen acknowledges the notion of the noumenon—the “thing in itself”--existing independently of human perception, thereby remaining fundamentally unknowable to us; and the notion of hauntology—the lingering effect of cultural forms and social structures upon our current practices, beliefs, and things. 

Drawing in viewers through merging photography and pictographic imagery, a sense of elusive order is established. The diagrams and line drawings indicate sequence and structure, implicating the photographic image in its quest to hold the viewer in an act of suspended inquiry. 

Alongside Chen’s philosophical subjects of investigation, particular objects resurface in his work, alluding to the role of printmaking in the early advancement of scientific knowledge-- anatomy, cartography, and botany.  The overlapping suggestions of the body, place, organic material, tools and the anecdotes that accompany them weave a slice of personal narrative, and the “things in themselves” remain on the periphery of perception.