The Square Perspective - Elena Thomas and Morgan Curtis

Pearl District

When

June 5–28, 2025

Days vary, Times vary

Free

Where

Gallery 114

1100 NW Glisan St
Portland, OR 97209

The following description was submitted by the event organizer.

Join Gallery 114 for The Square Perspective, an art exhibition that showcases the work of two new gallery members, Elena Thomas and Morgan Curtis. The title reflects the fact that Thomas works with squares as a significant feature of her work, while Curtis uses a square as the base for his paintings.

Thomas makes artwork that focuses on spatial relationships and shifting perspectives. She explores, and invites others to explore, the different possibilities of space and perception. Her wood sculptures consist of squares, which she uses to frame and shape space. She incorporates lighting, shadows, and reflective materials in order to create multiple perceptual layers. The combination of these lighting elements and the way the squares act as frames makes the artwork take on more of the space, become more experiential, and challenge perceptual expectations. Most recently, she has been expanding her sculpture practice into different mediums, including incorporating her sculptures into paintings, building them on canvases, or using a variety of painting techniques on them.

Curtis’s paintings are a tangle of the ineffable – playful, unsettling, and alive with the logic of dreams. Working in experimental scales and vivid pastels, he creates “cinematic brain captures” where figures and ground collide, forming psychedelic puzzles that linger in the mind like half-remembered stories. His work embraces the irrational, the childlike, and the uncanny, inviting viewers into a world where meaning is fluid and discovery is endless. Each painting is an open-eyed dream, a conversation between the familiar and the strange. The goal isn’t to decode, but to wander – to meet the unexpected, both on the canvas and within ourselves. 

Opening reception: Thursday, June 5th, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.