Timothy Curtis

Almine Rech New York, Upper East Side is pleased to present Timothy Curtis's second solo exhibition with the gallery.

Timothy Curtis is a self-taught artist from Philadelphia who works in New York City.

Curtis was first introduced to the arts via graffiti writing as a young child in Philadelphia. Later, while serving a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence, he immerses himself in the study of art history, drawing, and painting. He emerges from the prison system with a fully formed artistic vision and distinctive style, through which he establishes a focused studio practice in late 2015. A talented graffiti writer as a teenager, Curtis continues to be influenced by this art form today. While his graphic use of line and vibrant color appear both decorative and aesthetically joyful, beneath their initial appeal there is more. His practice is the natural continuation of a rich artistic tradition from the region of his birth. Aside from the Philadelphia graffiti that he was surrounded by at a young age, Curtis also starts to recognize another artistic influence on his work, that of the Pennsylvania stoneware of the 1860s. Like the distinctive and regionally specific graffiti of 1970s Philadelphia, the stoneware of that same region also maintains a visually unique and iconic imagery within the medium.

Curtis has gone on to have solo presentations in Tokyo, New York City, Berlin and Paris and was included in the 2019 group exhibition 'The Pencil is a Key: Drawings by Incarcerated Artists' at The Drawing Center in New York City. He was included in the 2022 exhibit 'Negotiating Grids' at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and at 'Beyond the Streets London' at Saatchi Gallery in 2023. Recently, Curtis was included in 'The Echo of Picasso' at Museo Picasso Malaga, Spain in 2024, and had a solo exhibition, 'The Painters Hands,' at The Current in Stowe, Vermont in 2025.