Damien Heller Chen,
A Meditation on Labor

November 7 - December 12, 2025

One Grand Gallery is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of Portland-based ceramicist Damien Heller-Chen. In our largely commodified world, machines have gradually improved our efficiency in producing objects until the human element is depreciated to maintaining these machines or rendered unnecessary altogether. In direct response to this ecosystem, A Meditation On Labor is a return to the human made processes where we strive for quality, efficiency, and ultimately, perfection, but discover that it is in the imperfections that make the object beautiful.

On display in the One Grand Gallery Loft, Heller-Chen presents 1000 meticulously crafted tea vessels, each uniquely hand thrown in porcelain and finished in a singular, white glaze. Presenting in a strong and uniform fashion, Heller-Chen calls into consideration the desire for automatization in the art-making process, and instead channels the loving and meditative labor of producing each ceramic work by hand.


Damien Heller-Chen is currently a studio art and Chinese literature major at Reed College, and as such, their surroundings have changed each year. Their work is a constant reflection of their immediate environment, and the constraints that come with it. They draw inspiration from the sterile campus studio, from their constrictive dorm room, and now from the basement of their house.

This project was supported in part by Greenberg Steinhauser President’s Discretionary Fund. 




@damienhellerchen
damienhellerchen.com

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