Affinity

LB Buchan, Erin Hiser, Bear Medina

March 7 - 29, 2026

Affinity is a collaborative project from LB Buchan, Erin Hiser, and Bear Medina. It explores themes of amalgamation, hybridity, evolution, and adaptation. These themes are present in each of their works separately, though this exhibit is its own synthesis between their bodies of work.

The exhibit features a series of trios: a drawing and sculpture, each with a perfume that further hybridizes the pair in the form of an alchemical third. Viewers are invited to smell, engaging in deeper intimacy with the visual art. Each work and each “collection” stands alone but also communicates with and complements every other. Similar to the exquisite corpse, these hybrids are both familiar and deviant. Grotesque, surreal, and, because they are made with intention, elegant.

Bear Medina is a draftsman experimenting with large-scale drawings, utilizing traditional drawing methods on alternative surfaces. Themes include ecology and the histories of place. They’re influenced by Cy Twombly, early scientific botanical illustrations, as well as the masters Rembrandt and Dürer. Currently, they are using the “Hopeful Monster” theory as a metaphor. This theory in the field of genetics espouses the possibility that large-scale mutations happen in a single generation, allowing a new species to adapt remarkably quickly. These unexpected morphologies are the “Hopeful Monsters”. They apply this theory as a metaphor for possible adaptive futures for us and the more-than-human world.

@medina.bear

LB Buchan grew up in Montana, where the ranches, wildlife, and hunting culture sparked in them a deep interest in animals, food sources, and anatomy. Early on, they began making parallels between people’s avoidance and discomfort around difficult topics and how we react to decomposition in nature. They started using carcasses, skeletal structures, and decaying plant life as inspiration. They intend to capture the hesitation these items can subconsciously cause, while also calling the viewer in. Many pieces are amalgams, formed from visual research using various sources. Often, they are familiar, but not necessarily identifiable. They’re interested in drawing attention to subjects that are overlooked, avoided, or outright rejected.

@lbuchansculpture

Erin Hiser works at the intersection of art and somatics, harnessing dreams, meditation, and movement. Their practice is a physical process led by intuition. Art making is an opportunity to be present and embodied. It led them to somatic therapy (as a client) and, for a time, a private practice as a therapist. Ten years ago, they began making perfume, a process both conceptual and body-centered. They work with perfume daily as a form of grounding, expression, and intention setting. They live in a sick body, in this culture of exploitation and separation. But they are interested in feeling holism, vitality, and connection. Their solo painting practice is beautifully balanced with perfumery as an interactive or responsive process. The thematic material of other artists inspires a sensory experience that they can express both as homage and in collaboration.

www.erinhiser.com