We are constantly looking at ourselves in the mirror. Maybe that mirror is a physical reality, or maybe it's more of the abstract concept of what a mirror is, but we are constantly dealing with ourselves in this new modern world. Think about it. Social media, self-help, advice, therapy, feelings, relationships, family, and sharing sharing sharing sharing until we can't seem to even find what it is that we originally were seeking, seems to be the definition of the times. We are constantly faced with a condition of selfhood, either a lack thereof or an abudance of it. There is something beautiful in the way that Timothy Curtis lets himself be vulnerable and a bit critical in his first museum show, Inkblots and Feeling Charts, currently on view at Atlanta Contemporary.
Using the marks and faces that he used in his graffiti, generating an understaning of his own incarceration a decade ago, Curtis is vacating a pretension of holding himself at arm's length in these works but is vividly bare here. You can see him, in the studio, working out these emotions, understanding himself as an evolving person but also an individual artist. What do you bring with you from your past? What do you feel in the moment? What is it that we universally can understand about feelings and individual desire but also use as a template for others. Curtis' own growth from his cover story with Juxtapoz years ago to his ascension to a truly unique contemporary art stalwart, this is a man who is charting his own path. And literally given us a blueprint of how he is doing it. —Evan Pricco