The Signal

Running ‘Platinum Cheese’ has given me a platform to share some of the most innovative voices thriving within today's New Contemporary Art scene. This latest exhibition represents a culmination of my experiences in the art world, and expands upon the dialogue between artist and audience by providing an arena where fans and creatives alike engage under one roof. Each artist was chosen based on my admiration for his or her unique aesthetic as well as his or her ability to captivate the viewer time and time again. When these singular voices are put next to one another, the perspectives "blend"to create a sense of continuity from one work to the next. -Stephanie Chefas

Souther Salazarwas born in 1978 in Hayward, CA. In the early 1990s, as a teenager in rural Oakdale, Salazar made photocopied cut-and-paste mini-comics and ‘zines. After graduating fromArt Center College of Designin Pasadena, he moved to Los Angeles where he lived and worked for ten years before re-locating to Portland OR, where he is currently based. Salazar’s artwork transports the viewer into a vibrant and endless world of overlapping narratives and dreamscapes— half-remembered, half-imagined places “where stories can develop and take on a life of their own.”  Utilizing a wide variety of freely mixed media, found objects and layers of assemblage, his work evokes the wonders and imagination that many of us abandoned in childhood. Salazar often exhibits his collages, paintings, drawings and sculptures in dense and frenzied installations that encourage exploration and discovery.