AUTUMN 2025 EXHIBITION

TENUOUS
by DANA MOrRISON

Opening reception: Friday, October 17, 6-8p
Monotype printmaking class: Sunday, November 16, 2-4p
On view through January 9, 2026 at Michelle Thomas Fine Art Gallery + Studio

ARTIST STATEMENT

Conceptually, my work deals with the human form, its function and dysfunction, and our physical reactions to emotion. Strong mental emotions or external stimuli can conjure an involuntary bodily response, such as a faster heart rate. These are responses each of us can relate to as they are an innate part of our human experience. 

The work includes ideas of boundaries: the interior, the exterior and how the natural world and our humanness interact and collide. In an age where nearly every aspect of modern life is digitized, pixilated, and computer assisted, this work celebrates the hand, focuses the viewer on texture and mass; it asks for close attention and reveals physical labor. Each piece requires mathematics, scientific research, and the elements of time and gravity to complete.

I often uses architectural materials and common household items to provide an abstract metaphor for the human figure. The concepts, materials, and negative spaces in these pieces allow the viewer to contemplate their own physical and emotional mechanics. Surface and color palette are unaltered, referencing the rawness, strength, and delicacy of human emotion and its physiological effects. These works allow the viewer to consider both their own physical and emotional state and that of the world we inhabit.

SHOP the show.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Dana Morrison lives and works in San Francisco, California. She earned her Master of Fine Arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2016, and her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography and Ceramics from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2010. 

Morrison graduated with SFAI’s top award by the Anne Bremer Foundation, and has been recognized through a number of grants and awards over the course of her career. She received the Murphy and Cadogan Contemporary Arts Award by SOMArts Cultural Center in 2015, which honors the top 20 emerging artists in the Bay Area. She received a full fellowship to attend the Vermont Studio Center in 2017, and in 2025 was awarded the Playa at Summer Lake artist residency in Oregon. 

Morrison grew up in a small town in central Pennsylvania and was gifted her first 35 mm camera at age twelve, sparking her interest in the arts. She maintains a strong studio practice, working primarily in sculpture, performance and both traditional and digital photography, teaching photography and art courses to students of all ages. 

Learn more about Dana Morrison HERE.