 Helenium , 2006 pigmented ink on rag paper Portia Munson Green P·P·O·W is pleased to announce "Green," a solo exhibition by Portia Munson. In this exhibition Portia Munson will show her flower mandala photographs, a large installation, and paintings. The exhibition is accompanied by a full-color catalogue. Enter the gallery and experience "Green: Lawn," a large-scale floor installation made up of thousands of green plastic objects Munson has collected, resulting in a full-throttle inorganic color experience. Piles of green-on-green plastic detritus flood the gallery floor, in patches of varying shades, to create a plastic lawn. As in her earlier installations - "Pink Project" and "The Garden" - "Lawn" delves into who we are as a culture, as defined by the objects we mass-produce, consume and throw away. Munson transforms these objects into a powerful assemblage critiquing our material values and "throwaway" mentality. In the same room, large-scale flower images line the gallery walls. Using flowers from her garden, Munson creates mandalas that contain the same intensity of detail and saturation of color as her installation. Munson collects the flowers at their peak and lays them out on a scanner in concentric patterns. These flower arrays are captured in high-resolution scans and printed on watercolor paper with pigmented ink. Each print is a sharply detailed kaleidoscope that mixes the utopian beauty of the Garden of Eden with the dizzying visuals of a psychedelic trip - the flowers seem to burst out in a pyrotechnical climax. In the back gallery a grouping of Munson's recent small still-life paintings will also be on display. In these paintings Munson depicts singular objects, in contrast to the thousands that make up "Lawn." The paintings are about isolating a common object - such as an empty angel-food cake pan, or a plastic leaf with a toy stick - allowing its individual meanings to resonate. Portia Munson is best known for her saturated pink plastic installation at the New Museum's "Bad Girls" show in 1994. She had her first one-person show at White Columns in 1993 and has exhibited in numerous group exhibitions as well as two solo shows at Yoshii Gallery. Recently, as part of a show titled "Out of Context," a billboard-size image of a flower mandala was exhibited at The Fields Sculpture Park at Art Omi International Arts Center, Omi, NY, and Munson recently had a solo exhibition at SUNY Ulster which included "Pink Project: Mound". Last year she exhibited her flower mandalas as part of a two-person show at P·P·O·W. Munson lives and works in Catskill, NY. Exhibition: January 5 - February 3, 2007 Gallery hours: Tues-Sat 10 am - 6 pm P·P·O·W 555 W 25th Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues) USA-New York, NY 10001 Telephone +1 212 647-1044 Fax +1 212 647-1043 Email info@ppowgallery.com www.ppowgallery.com |
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