Renowned artist at Upstairs Artspace contemplates the multiple meanings of water Photography exhibition features works by Martha Strawn

With great enthusiasm, Upstairs Artspace welcomes lifelong educator, conservationist, and photographer Martha Strawn to the gallery as its 2026 Distinguished Alumni Artist for an immersive showing of her work, “The Phenomenology of Water: Works by Martha Strawn.” The show opens Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, with a free community reception from 2–4 pm. 

The culmination of a long-term personal project exploring the connection between water and consciousness, this exhibition will feature over 80 large format color and black and white photographs and two new video works that capture Strawn’s lifelong passion for conservation, ecology, and water. It will be accompanied by the publication, The Phenomenology of Water, representing the contents of the show, which is available for purchase. Archival photographic prints of works in the show are also for sale.

Upstairs Artspace is located at 49 S. Trade St., Tryon, NC, and Strawn’s work will be on display through January 8, 2027.

Upstairs Artspace is also pleased to collaborate with Tryon Arts & Crafts School for this exhibition as the school will host a satellite installation of Strawn’s work, called “Overflow,” on display in the TACS Rear Gallery from Nov. 3, 2026 through Feb. 14, 2027. 

“Overflow” allows the artist and curators at Upstairs Artspace an opportunity to display additional photographic works that explore the material, environmental and contemplative nature of Strawn’s evocative images of water. 

Another collaboration with Tryon Painters and Sculptors will give TPS members a designated space to hang their own explorations of water, coinciding with the dates of the Upstairs show. Strawn’s book, The Phenomenology of Water, will also be available for purchase at TPS.

In addition to the exhibition at Upstairs, several community events are planned to provide opportunities to engage with Strawn, photography, conservation, and the natural world. Programming includes a lecture and Q&A with Martha Strawn on Nov. 4 at 2 pm; a photography workshop, “Water and Light,” led by Strawn and Monica Stevenson in collaboration with Tryon Arts & Crafts School on Nov. 11; a panel conversation featuring six experts from a variety of fields discussing the physical, practical, and emotional value of water on Nov. 15 at 2 pm; and an art history lecture presented by Dr. Lili Corbus on Jan. 6, 2027 at 2 pm. Details and registration for these events are online at UpstairsArtspace.org under the events tab.

Strawn is Professor of Art Emerita at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where she taught from 1971 until her retirement in 2006. She has long been recognized for combining aesthetic and scientific inquiry in the study of place, an approach she calls “visual ecology.”

Strawn co-founded The Light Factory Contemporary Art Museum of Photography in Charlotte and was a Fulbright Fellow to India and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow in photography. Her photographs have been exhibited in museums and cultural institutions worldwide, including the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Princeton Art Museum, National Geographic Society Museum, Mint Museum of Art, and Carnegie Museum of Natural History, among others.

She is the author of Alligators, Prehistoric Presence in the American Landscape (1997); co-author with Yi-Fu Tuan of Religion: From Place to Placelessness (2009); author of Across the Threshold of India: Art, Women and Culture (2016); and editor of Flight of Spirit: The Photographs of Anne Noggle (2019). Strawn traveled and worked in India over a period of 40 years. She currently serves as president of the Anne Noggle Foundation.

Strawn is also an ardent conservationist. She co-founded two conservation nonprofits: The Davidson Lands Conservancy in Davidson, N.C. and Our Santa Fe River in High Springs, Fla.

Strawn has a long history with Upstairs Artspace. In 1983, while teaching at the University of North Carolina, she was selected as Artist in Residence at the Upstairs. For a year, she commuted from Charlotte to Tryon on weekends and holidays, ultimately exhibiting the work she produced during her residency at the Upstairs. 

In the exhibition catalogue, Strawn re-printed her favorite quote by poet Kahlil Gibran, which she says perfectly encapsulates her purpose with this body of work. Gibran stated, ‘As between the soul and the body there is a bond, so are the body and its environment linked together.’

“This exhibition and publication reflect my water self,” Strawn explains. “They are meant to inspire thinking, feeling, discerning, caring, and sharing about how we nurture our conscious existence and perceive the world in its many layers of reality through our use of life-giving water.”

“‘The Phenomenology of Water’ is a powerful example of how the visual arts can be a catalyst for culturally, socially relevant discourse that informs and enriches the lives of those who experience it,” says Eldred Hudson, the show’s co-curator and co-chair of Upstairs Artspace’s Exhibitions Committee. “Compelling large format photographs created by North Carolina artist and educator Martha Strawn celebrate her life-long reverence for and engagement with the natural world, inviting audiences to consider the profound and varied ways water impacts our thinking and existence on the planet we share.”

“Upstairs Artspace would like to thank the Polk County Community Foundation for grant funding that was instrumental in the formation and production of this exhibition,” says Sarah Schroth, co-curator and co-chair of Upstairs Artspace’s Exhibitions Committee. “Additionally, the grant will support programming that will offer opportunities for the Polk community to engage with conservation, photography, and the many meanings of water.”

Founded in 1978, Upstairs Artspace is a non-profit contemporary art gallery located at 49 S. Trade St., Tryon, NC. For more information about the gallery, this exhibit, upcoming programs, or registration, visit UpstairsArtspace.org, call (828) 859-2828, or email frontdesk@upstairsartspace.org.