Trey Hurst’s At the Threshold in Bangkok runs until November 8: memory takes shape in blue-white arcs and raw-canvas brushwork
Play Art House brings together paintings developed by Trey Hurst between 2023 and 2026. From Advent 02 and Structure of Memory 01 to OLLE’s soundscape, explore materials, dimensions and close-up details for an art stop on Song Wat Road.
Play Art House in Bangkok is presenting At the Threshold, a solo exhibition by American artist Trey Hurst, from October 10 to November 8, 2026. Based in Bangkok, Hurst brings together paintings developed between 2023 and 2026, holding human figures somewhere between abstraction and recognition. Memory is not a complete story in these paintings: some outlines remain while others are obscured by new brushwork, and figures seem to emerge even as they fade. Rather than begin by guessing who is pictured, look at how an image is built.
Raw canvas and repeated brushwork bring figures slowly into being
Raw canvas and repeated gestures are important clues in this body of work. Hurst lets paint absorb into the canvas surface, gradually building figures through layering, changes of direction and repetition. From a distance, arcs and elongated outlines may gather into a head or body; move closer, and the image separates into brush marks, patches of colour and exposed underlying tones. Moving between these views is more rewarding than finding a single hidden pattern, because the same marks can sustain a figure and loosen it at any moment.
Details of adjacent canvases reveal overlapping ochre, black and white, with curved boundaries alternating between coverage and exposure.
Advent 02 is an acrylic painting on canvas measuring 140 × 200 cm. Against deep blue, creamy white arcs overlap, with fine lines left by the bristles visible in some strokes and blue-grey patches showing through. The image does not locate a figure through clearly defined eyes and a nose. Instead, layers of curved lines build something resembling the volume of a head. Follow how the brightest white carries the eye upward, then notice how dark gaps interrupt the outline. The same curved shape both connects and obscures.
Advent 02 layers creamy white arcs against deep blue, keeping a headlike form at the edge of recognition.The blue-white contours of Structure of Memory 01 enclose one another, leaving dark gaps against the ground.
Two blue paintings reveal differences in scale and contour
Structure of Memory 01 is also acrylic on canvas, measuring 95 × 135 cm. Blue, white and a dark ground overlap within a more compact image. Elongated, arch-topped outlines enclose deeper voids, suggesting parts of a face without settling into a fixed expression. Viewed alongside Advent 02, it offers a comparison of how white spreads in one painting and catches the edges in another. The difference in size also shifts attention from an expansive field of colour to the small breaks between contours.
Advent 06 makes the relationship between warm and cool colours more pronounced. Against green, arcs of white, pink and red layer into an upright form, with stronger red patches giving the eye places to pause at different heights. A photograph of the making process offers another sense of scale: paint jars stand in the foreground, while black, white and ochre outlines on the canvas behind retain visible traces of layering. Looking at finished work alongside process turns “hazy” into a specific outcome of brushwork rather than merely a description of atmosphere.
Advent 06 layers white, pink and red strokes over green, drawing warm and cool colours toward one another.An official photograph of the making process places paint jars before a canvas, showing the relationship in scale between tools and image.
Red-green layers, sound and a visit to Song Wat Road
The exhibition is accompanied by a soundscape designed by OLLE. The artist’s introduction explains that it has neither lyrics nor narrative, accompanying the viewing experience as a continuous presence in the space. It offers a rhythm different from explanatory text: the eyes identify boundaries, the ears receive sustained sound, and visitors decide how long to stay. This echoes the figures that recur in the paintings without becoming fully resolved. What remains is a sense of relationships and time, rather than an answer that must be reconstructed as one plot.
The venue is Play Art House at 993 Song Wat Road, Bangkok, with event information listing free entry. The exhibition is still running on October 27, making it a possible stop on an art walk along Song Wat Road. Before setting out, browse the artist’s official exhibition page to compare artwork images, installation views and close-ups of the making process, then confirm the day’s opening arrangements with the venue. In the gallery, begin at a distance where you can see the whole painting, then move closer to follow an arc and see how a sense of memory emerges from materials and repeated gestures.
