) For the last forty years, Tompkins has created paintings, drawings, and collages that appropriate images of graphic sexuality to explore the tension between representation and experience. P•P•O•W will be debuting a new series of Women Words, a project the artist initiated in 2010, wherein language mined from an international network of email contacts obscure female figures in art historical images. Spanning the Renaissance to the mid-20th Century, this series of mixed-media works on paper subverts Western art historical narratives that, until recently, have lionized only men’s contributions. While much of Tompkins’ early work was under-appreciated by contemporary art critics, her provocative and complex paintings and works on paper have recently had a resurgence in recognition, and offer a timely feminist response to current issues in business, entertainment, and politics.
