found pink plastic, tempered glass and recycled wood table
57.1 x 36.8 x 177.8 (cm)
22.5 x 14.5 x 70.0 (inch)
For over two decades, Portia Munson (b. 1961, Beverley, MA) has created maximal installations, paintings and sculptures that harness a vast array of synthetic products. Alongside a selection of oil paintings, P·P·O·W will present "Her Coffin", 2016, a glass box filled with thousands of discarded pink plastic products manufactured for and marketed towards women and girls. Munson has long been interested in colors that are used to signify and commodify gender and the way the colors have been strategically modulated for different generations. "Her Coffin" acts as a time capsule, depicting what Munson describes as “this carcinogenic plastic moment in time.” As part of the inaugural edition of Meridians, Munson will present "The Garden", 1996, an immersive installation which takes the form of a woman’s bedroom densely layered with floral dresses, stuffed animals, furniture, and fake flowers. Seductive and repulsive, this installation amplifies capitalism’s vision of bourgeois femininity, where the act of acquiring to meet societal standards fuels the momentum of hyper-consumption and climate crisis. Munson holds a BFA from Cooper Union and a MFA from Rutgers University, and has studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Her work has been exhibited at The New Museum, New York, NY; Kunsthallen Brandts Klaedefabrik, Odense, Denmark; Portsmouth Museum of Fine Art, Portsmouth, NH; MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA; Wave Hill, Bronx, NY; The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, and The Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki, Finland, among others. She is represented in numerous private and public collections, including 21C Museum (Louisville, KY), Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Lyndhurst, OH, The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA and the U.S. Department of State. In 2019, Munson was awarded a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant.
