Power Flex: Art Talk By Margaret Curtis

TRYON, NC — Upstairs Artspace invites the public to a special Art Talk with renowned

feminist artist Margaret Curtis on Sunday, June 15, from 3 to 5 PM. This free event offers an in- depth look into Curtis’s process and the powerful themes behind her solo exhibition This Is How It Happened, on view through June 27.

The exhibition features 35 pieces, including oil paintings, drawings, and monoprints, several of which were recently shown at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA). With its intentionally open-ended title, This Is How It Happened invites viewers to question whose stories are told and who tells them.

Curtis’s work explores “everyday flexings of power” through a feminist, political, and deeply personal lens. Using tools like cheese graters and cake-decorating kits, she builds richly layered textured surfaces that reflect the anxiety and contradictions of modern life.

“I’m drawn to imagery that has accumulated conflicting meanings,” she says, “and I like teasing apart those tangled messages.”

A Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellow (2021–2026) and finalist for the Catherine Doctorow Prize for Contemporary Painting, Curtis gained early acclaim in Marcia Tucker’s 1994 exhibition Bad Girls at the New Museum. Her work has since been shown at the Brooklyn Museum, The Andy Warhol Museum, and The Mint Museum. Curtis lives and works between North Carolina and New Mexico and is represented by Tracey Morgan Gallery in Asheville, NC.

Upstairs Artspace is located at 49 S. Trade St., downtown Tryon. For more information, visit upstairsartspace.org or call 828-859-2828.

"Emotional Cartography IV", By Margaret Curtis, 2015, Gouache on Paper, 30in. x 22in., Collection of Linda and Ron Larsen