Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

The Disquieting, Wide-Reaching Paintings of Margaret Curtis

The work of Margaret Curtis moves between provocative and quiet moments, each reflecting both on our current social climate and the act of painting itself. She has said that her process is “a geological process of layering and erosion.” In a statement, she offers some insight into the more consistent themes in her paintings over time:

The work of Margaret Curtis moves between provocative and quiet moments, each reflecting both on our current social climate and the act of painting itself. She has said that her process is “a geological process of layering and erosion.” In a statement, she offers some insight into the more consistent themes in her paintings over time:

“My work has always been concerned with power,” the artist says. “Recently, I began working with more precise representation to create large-scale, complex—yet open— narratives that explore power dynamics within everyday relationships. My subject matter is feminist, personal, political: the body as occupied territory, autonomy won through confrontation.”

See more of her work below.

Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
As a young girl, artist Margaret Bowland's favorite books and songs told stories about love and life, stories that condition girls to expect certain things out of life and want to be a certain way. Ideas about love, beauty, and personal identity are at the heart of her 19th century-inspired oil paintings, covered here. In particular, her portraits often feature the same African American girl named "J", grandly styled with her face painted white, and attended to by white servants. She makes a reappearance in Bowland's upcoming exhibition at Driscoll Babcock in New York, "Power".
Jonas Burgert’s oil paintings are packed with surreal figures and fluorescent hues. These strange scene sometimes appear as both piles and explosions of disparate objects and beings, with still faces staring above them. His single-figure studies, meanwhile, are often wrapped and confined, yet eerily content. He was last featured on HiFructose.com here.
It seems that everything Tempe, Arizona-based artist Travis Rice touches turns to rainbow. In his paintings and installations, Rice entices viewers with colorful, abstract shapes that respond to geometry and architecture. His enormous, multicolored paper installations have been a hallmark of his shows over the past few years. With these waterfalls of shredded paper suspended from the ceiling, Rice alters the way that viewers interact with an otherwise ordinary gallery space. While these works are soft and amorphous, his paintings are more rigorous studies of form and depth. Shard-like rainbow shapes seem to explode outwards towards the viewer, creating layers of contrasting colors and textures.
Themes of science and introspection permeate throughout the oil paintings created by Romanian artist Victor Fota. His current body of work, “Human Extension,” progresses those ideas by exploring relationships between man and machine. The result is a surreal experience entangled in reality and science fiction.

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List