Painter Margaret Curtis doesn’t just tackle power dynamics — she dissects, distills, and reassembles them in fiercely imaginative works that walk the line between beauty and brutality. In This Is How It Happened, a solo show running through late June at Upstairs Artspace in Tryon, Curtis offers bold, narrative-rich canvases that examine how personal histories echo systemic ones, weaving feminist critique with surreal and sometimes unsettling detail. A Tryon-based artist and inaugural Joan Mitchell Fellow, Curtis first gained national acclaim in the 1994 Bad Girls exhibition at the New Museum of Contemporary Art. Since then, Curtis has exhibited everywhere from The Andy Warhol Museum to The Wexner Center. This latest body of work is ambitious in scale and unapologetic in voice.
This Is How It Happened: Through June 27; Artist Talk: Sunday, June 15, 3-5pm
Upstairs Artspace / 49 South Trade St., Tryon / upstairsartspace.org