EXHIBITION: September 7-30, 2023
Artist's Reception: First Thursday, September 7, 6-8 PM

In the exhibition Fiat Lux, Richard Morhous examines the nuances of light, color and emotion. His acrylic paintings are often depictions of informal moments with people in urban environments, the architecture of cities, sublime parks, coastal beauty, or engaging window scenes. His painterly compositions pull the viewer in to examine the artist’s brushwork, experimental line drawing and interlocking shapes, often transforming the work to provocative abstractions. His selection of colors and attention to light enables the work to pop and come to life. The phrase fiat lux is latin for “let there be light.”

The artist reflects, “Over the past 12 months I have been engaged by color, light, and personal connections afforded by observed imagery. Color defines and enhances an image. Shared observation and memory provides and layers an image with personal emotion. And…Light breathes life into it all.”

This month Richard Morhous celebrates his fortieth year as an exhibiting artist, with the September 7th Artist Reception marking 40 years to the day since his first gallery show. Morhous was born in South Dakota and raised in Eastern Washington and Montana. After receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Washington in 1970, Morhous moved to Melbourne, Australia to study printmaking at the Prahan Institute where he also taught. In 1976 he returned to the University of Washington for independent studies in printmaking. The artist, who has resided in Seattle for the last 40 years, has works included in such collections as Microsoft, The Hallie Ford Museum of Art, City of Portland, City of Seattle, Cisco Systems, Perkins Coie, Deloitte Touche, University of Washington Medical Center, The Heathman Hotel and numerous private collections internationally. His work appears in The Pacific Northwest Landscape: A Painted History, and in the 2003 survey, 100 Artists of the West Coast. Morhous’ exhibitions have been reviewed or featured in Artweek, The Oregonian, Seattle Times, Southwest Art, and many other periodicals over the years.