Tryon-based artist Margaret Curtis will open a new exhibit at Mars Hill University’s Weizenblatt Gallery on February 13, 2019. “Margaret Curtis: New Paintings” will run through March 15, 2019. There will be a reception for the artist on Wednesday, February 27, from 6-8 p.m.
Curtis has been creating feminist-based work since the late 1980s. Set in the social/psychological landscape of the American South, her large-scale paintings explore everyday flexing of power, along with societal pressures toward conformity or silence. Her subject matter is personal and political: the female body as occupied territory, and autonomy won through confrontation. She creates complex narratives that explore power dynamics in their most intimate settings.
Curtis’ work was exhibited in the landmark 1994 “Bad Girls” exhibition at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York. She has exhibited in many museums and contemporary art spaces in New York, including the Brooklyn Museum and the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, along with the Warhol Museum, the Hickory Museum, the Mint Museum in Charlotte, and many more. She now lives in Tryon, North Carolina.
The gallery’s current exhibit, “Forever In an Instant” by photographer Jay Kranyik, runs through February 8, 2019.
Established in 1991 as a gift from the estate of Dr. Sprinza Weizenblatt, Asheville physician and philanthropist, the primary function of the Weizenblatt Gallery at Mars Hill University is to educate through art. Weizenblatt Gallery hosts exhibitions of work in a variety of styles and mediums by artists of local and national prominence. The gallery’s operational hours are Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. during the academic spring and fall semesters. The general public, school classes, and other groups are welcome. Admission is free.
