Sometimes it is best to let artists speak for themselves. This is what artist-curators Kelly McConnell and Ashley Page wrote about the exhibition “Splay,” on view through Jan. 16 at Able Baker Contemporary in Portland:

“Within this exhibition, artists take what has been splayed, stripped, and extracted to mend and reconstruct a new vision of themselves and for us. We disassemble the harsh, psychological landscape to envision fresh possibilities for a new way of being, reformed in collaborative spirit and solidarity. In the year of 2020, we experienced the continuity of harsh psychological realisms play over and over in empty studios. We’ve perceived elation as the ultimate form of exhaustion, but we ask: How do we obtain a balance between euphoria and depletion?”

The exhibition features work by Hannah Adams, Greta Bank, Sascha Braunig, Annika Earley, Future Mothers (Elizabeth Jabar and Colleen Kinsella), Athena Lynch, Kelly McConnell, Ashley Page, Danielle Scott, Anoushé Shojae-Chaghorvand and Kiana Thayer.

Opined a press release, “The work inclines to meet you, whether oblique or straightforward, and always slightly devious, fun and underhanded. We will not use your right angles, rather we will meet your gaze knowing that to Splay is to be more at display, extra, and fully inserted in this world.”

For information, go to ablebakercontemporary.com.