In A Room with a View, Julie Curtiss transforms the humble pairing of snails and an artichoke into something both intimate and uncanny. Two snails curl toward each other in quiet embrace, their mirrored forms evoking both tenderness and absurdity - a perfect encapsulation of Curtiss’s surreal domestic sensibility.

The reference to Salvador Dalí runs deep here: the snails’ hermaphroditic nature mirrors the dual, androgynous way Gala was depicted in The God of the Bay of Roses, while the painting’s palette draws directly from Dalí’s favored tones — earthy greens, violets, and golds. Yet, in Curtiss’s hands, this homage becomes a meditation on fluid identity, appetite, and desire.

True to her practice, Curtiss merges humor and sensuality within a staged, interior world. The artichoke, part armor and part bloom, becomes both subject and setting - a surreal stage where love, transformation, and strangeness quietly unfold behind the curtain.