Image: Chefas Projects, Portland
Chefas Projects in Portland will present ‘Astral Accessories’ by Jessie Weitzel Le Grand from July 24 to August 22, 2026. The gallery says the exhibition brings together a new body of sculptural work in which obsolete technological devices are remade as “enigmatic relics” that hover between artifact, machine and living organism. An opening reception is scheduled for Friday, July 24, from 5 to 8 pm.
According to the gallery’s preview materials, the exhibition centers on ideas of fractured communication. In place of clear transmission, the text describes static, interference, intuition and half-remembered technologies that once promised connection. The sculptures draw on the visual language of outdated communications hardware and consider what remains when systems of transmission fail or become obsolete.
The works are described as combining ceramics, thermoplastic, flashe paint and materials used in fly tying. Weitzel Le Grand embeds natural elements such as orchids, moths and fragments of coral within computer motherboards, rotary telephones and other obsolete technologies, creating what the gallery calls disorienting, exuberant configurations. The resulting sculptures are intended to blur the boundaries between art, artifact and technology while prompting viewers to question the objects’ functions and invent their own narratives.
Chefas Projects says the exhibition does not aim to resolve those tensions. Instead, ‘Astral Accessories’ embraces ambiguity, treating failed or outdated devices as speculative tools for communicating across impossible distances, whether between worlds, across time or with forms of intelligence beyond comprehension. The gallery frames the work as suspended between archaeology and science fiction, with meaning emerging through noise, distortion and interruption rather than through direct message.
The exhibition is Weitzel Le Grand’s fourth with Chefas Projects, which says it is welcoming back the Portland-based sculptor. The artist was born and raised in Portland, where she continues to live and work. She received a BFA from the Pacific Northwest College of Art and an MAT from Marylhurst University.
The gallery’s materials also note that her work has recently been shown at Galerie Lefebvre & Fils in Paris, Outback Arthouse in Los Angeles, Oregon Contemporary in Portland, and as part of Lazy Oaf’s ‘Take A Break’ exhibition in London. Weitzel Le Grand is also identified as the co-founder of carnation Contemporary and Well Well Projects, and as a represented artist at Chefas Projects. The gallery’s address is 134 SE Taylor Street, Suite 203, Portland, Oregon, where it is open Wednesday through Saturday from 1 to 6 pm.
