An art exhibition featuring Ian Nickols and Elena Thomas
July 26th, 2024
6-9pm
The genre of Ian Nickols’ artwork oscillates between illustrative and painterly. He is influenced by modern era type styles such as Impressionism, Post Impressionism, Metaphysical art, and Symbolism. Ian is also influenced by book cover science fiction artists of the 70’s and 80’s, particularly ones that emphasize a sense of scale and atmospheric perspective.
Ian received his BFA in painting and drawing from the San Francisco Art Institute and his MFA in visual studies from the Pacific Northwest College of Art. Ian is from Stockton, CA, has lived in Portland, OR for six years and loves the environment and climate of the Pacific Northwest. One of the most satisfying and important things to Ian is sharing his work and connecting to viewers, which he recently had the opportunity to do with his solo show Past, Presence and Future.
The artwork of Elena Thomas focuses on spatial relationships and shifting perspectives. She explores, and invites others to explore, the different possibilities of space and perception. She subverts expectations in order to provide people with an opportunity to reconsider how and what they perceive.
She works in photography, sculpture, interactive art, and immersive installations. Currently located in Portland, OR, she earned a BA in Art with a Math minor from Pitzer College and received her MFA in Visual Studies from Pacific Northwest College of Art.
In 2020, one of her photographs was purchased for the Portland, OR Public Art Collection. She was accepted onto the Washington State Arts Commission Public Artist Roster in 2021. In the last couple of years, she has created a site-specific public art installation for the City of Auburn, WA and had her work included in the Around Oregon Annual Exhibition.