Portia Munson, 2022
Photo by Kevin Thomasson
For over three decades, Portia Munson (b.1961) has created maximal installations, sculptures, paintings, and digital prints using a vast accumulation of ready-made consumer products to decipher the latent cultural codes embedded in mass-produced items. Munson lives and works in Catskill, NY. She holds a BFA from Cooper Union, an MFA from Rutgers University, and studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She has been awarded residencies at institutions including Fountainhead, Miami, FL; Woodman Residency Foundation, Tuscany, Italy; Civitella Ranieri, Umbertide, Italy; MacDowell Colony for the Arts, Peterborough, NH; Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA; and Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY, as well as a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2019. Her work has been the subject of over twenty solo exhibitions at Museum of Sex, New York, NY; P·P·O·W, New York, NY; White Columns, New York, NY; MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA; and Olana State Historic Site, Hudson, NY, among others. Munson’s work has also been in numerous international group exhibitions including Cross Pollination: Heade, Cole, Church, and our Contemporary Moment, Olana State Historic Site, Hudson, NY; Dime-Store Alchemy, curated by Jonathan Rider, FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY; Beyond Boundaries: Feminine Forms, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; and Bad Girls, curated by Marcia Tucker, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY, among others. Her public works include Pink Projects with the Art Production Fund, Rockefeller Center, New York, NY; Art in the Terminal, the Albany International Airport, Albany, NY; MTA Arts for Transit, Bryant Park MTA Station, New York, NY; and a permanent Metropolitan Transit Authority installation in Brooklyn, NY. In summer 2022, Munson presented three solo exhibitions, Bound Angel, P·P·O·W, New York, NY; Portia Munson: Flood, Art Omi, Ghent, NY; and Memento Mori, Pamela Salisbury Gallery, Hudson, NY. Her work is included in the 2023 exhibition Rituals of Devotion at the McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, San Francisco, CA. In 2023, Munson presented Portia Munson: The Pink Bedroom at the Museum of Sex, New York, NY.
Portia Munson
b. 1961, Beverly, MA
Lives and works in Catskill, NY
Education
1990
MFA, Mason Gross School of Art, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
1987
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME
1983
BFA, Cooper Union School of Art, New York, NY
Solo Exhibitions
2023
Portia Munson: The Pink Bedroom, Museum of Sex, New York, NY
2022
Bound Angel, P·P·O·W, New York, NY
Memento Mori, Pamela Salisbury Gallery, Hudson, NY
Portia Munson: Flood, The Newmark Gallery at Art Omi, Ghent, NY
2021
Memento Mori Mandalas, Olana State Historic Site, Hudson, NY
2019
Pink Projects, Art Production Fund, Rockefeller Center, New York, NY
2018
Her World/Her Room, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA
Flood, Disjecta, Portland, OR
2017
The Garden, P·P·O·W, New York, NY
Earth Rites, NYU Langone Medical Center Gallery, New York, NY
2015
Little Suns, Hollow Bones, Cross Contemporary Art Gallery, Saugerties, NY
Dear Mother Nature, Mills Gallery, Central College, Pella, IA
2013
Reflecting Pool, P·P·O·W, New York, NY
2011
Color Forms, MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA
2010
Portia Munson, Liebowitz Gallery, Bard College at Simon’s Rock, Great Barrington, MA
2007
Green, P·P·O·W, New York, NY
Pink Project: Contained, Hemphill Gallery, Washington D.C.
2005
Flower Mandalas, P·P·O·W, New York, NY
1996
The Garden, Yoshii Gallery, New York, NY
Pink Project: Bedroom, Hotel, Art Awareness, Lexington, NY
1994
Paintings and Pink, Yoshii Gallery, New York, NY
1993
White Room, White Columns, New York, NY
Select Group Exhibitions
2024
Still, Life!, 21c, Lexington, KY
Plasticulture: The Rise of Sustainable Practices with Polymers, SVA Chelsea Gallery, New York, NY
Understory, Pamela Salisbury Gallery, Hudson, NY
Bound Rocks & Functional Women, Opus 40, Saugerties, NY
Angelic Rebels, Company Gallery, New York, NY
Plasticulture, SVA Chelsea Gallery, New York, NY
Biophilia, Pamela Salisbury Gallery, Hudson, NY
Psychedelic Landscape, Beattie Powers Place, Catskill, NY
The Doll Show, Byrdcliffe Guild, Woodstock, NY
Twenty/20, Athens Cultural Center, Athens, NY
2023
PhotograpHER, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO
Finders Keepers, VSOP Projects, Greenport, NY
Rituals of Devotion, McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
Still Life! Mourning, Meaning, Mending, 21c, Bentonville, AR
2022
Women's Work, Lyndhurst Mansion, Tarrytown, NY
Artists Draw Their Studios, curated by Michelle Weinberg, Marymount Manhattan College, Hewitt Gallery of Art, New York, NY
Kaatsbaan Festival, Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, Tivoli, NY
A SENSE OF PLACE: Artists from the Woodstock Masters Series, Woodstock, NY
2021
Still, Life! Mourning, Meaning, Mending, 21c, Louisville, KY
Cross Pollination: Heade, Cole, Church, and our Contemporary Moment, Olana State Historic Site, Hudson, NY
Bad Girls, wallspaceplease, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
2019
Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
Drawn Together Again, FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY
CHEW: Food as Muse, Opalka Gallery- Sage College of Albany, Albany, NY
2018
Dime-Store Alchemy, curated by Jonathan Rider, FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY
Spectrum, Curated by Kate Menconeri & Kiki Smith, Thomas Cole National Historic Site, Catskill, NY
Cheeky: Summer Butts, Curated by Anthony Iacono & Peter LaBier, Marinaro, New York, NY
OVERRIDE | A Billboard Project at EXPO Chicago, Chicago, IL
Landmark, Albany International Airport, Albany, NY
2017
Beyond Boundaries: Feminine Forms, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Herbarium, NYU Langone Medical Center Gallery, New York, NY
Garden Dwellers, Regina Rex, New York, NY
In Our Nature, Corridor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Out of Site, Chesterwood, Stockbridge, MA
Radical Kingdoms, Union College, Schenectady, NY
Pink Noise: Flexing the Frequency, Girls’ Club, Fort Lauderdale, FL
2016
Tide is High, Colonel’s Row, Governor’s Island, New York, NY
Tie His Hands Gently, Romeo, New York, NY
Nature Pops, Wave Hill, Bronx, NY
In Plain Air, Art Omi, Ghent, NY
2014
American Trash, eARThWE Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
The Skull Show, Bedford Gallery, Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, CA
2013
Consumed: Nourishment and Indulgence, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH
Resonance: Audible Silence in Portraiture, Fine Arts Center Gallery, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR
Ephemeral, Adelphi University, Garden City, NY
Convergence, Monmouth University, West Long Branch, NJ
2012
The Female Gaze, Women Artists Making Their World, Linda Lee Alter Collection, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Dear Mother Nature, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, NY
2011
Oppenheimer Collection, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS
2010
Debris, P·P·O·W, New York, NY
Objectophilia; Biennial of the Americas, Capsule, Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Denver, CO
Artists of the Mohawk-Hudson Region, The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY
Botanica, Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, NJ
Digital to Physical, Patton-Malott Gallery, Anderson Ranch, Snowmass Village, CO
At the Edge, Portsmouth Museum of Fine Art, Portsmouth, NH
2009
Forces of Nature, Danese Gallery, New York, NY
New Prints-Portraits, IPCNY, New York, NY
2008
Garbage Picker! The Contemporary Artist as Chiffonier(e), curated by Amy Brandt, Affirmation Arts, New York, NY
Repetitive Nature, Concourse Gallery, Albany International Airport, Albany, NY
Cornucopia: Documenting the Land of Plenty, Monserrat Collage of Art, Beverly, MA
Out of this World, Rockland Arts Center, Nyack, NY
2007
Tuttavia Povero!, Shore Institute of Contemporary Art, Long Branch, NJ
Oasis, Flushing Town Hall, Flushing, NY
2006
Out of Context: Contemporary Photography in the Landscape, The Fields Sculpture Park Art, Omi International Arts Center, Ghent, NY
2005
This is Not an Archive, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, NY
Flowers/Kwiaty, Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY
2004
Tracks, Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY
On Paper, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
2003
Compost, Gallery at The University of Memphis, Memphis, TN
2002
Artists to Artists, Ace Gallery, New York, NY (catalogue)
Color of the Avant Garde, Landmark Gallery, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX
Reaction, Exit Art, New York, NY
2001
Spitting Image, Art Gallery at Stamford University of Connecticut, Stamford, CT
2000
Fixation: Obsession..., curated by A. Inselman, Kohler Arts Center Sheboygan, WI
The Likeness of Being, curator Dr. Judith Stein, DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY
1999
The Petite Format, Yoshii Gallery, New York, NY
Color, Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA
Alan Sonfist & Portia Munson, Art Gallery of University of Southern Maine, Gorham, ME
1998
The Ornament of the Masses, Kunstahallen Brandts Klaedefabrik, Odensec, Denmark (catalogue)
Along the Garden Path, Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE, curated by Linda Weintraub, (catalogue)
1997
Fetish, Art Gallery of Windsor, curated by Renee Baert (catalogue), Montreal, Canada
Pink, Jean Albano Gallery, Chicago, IL, curated by Lisa Wainwright
American Art Today: The Garden, Museum at Florida International University, Miami, FL (catalogue)
Figuring Women's Lives, Kingsborough Community College Art Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
1996
Obsession, Nexus Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA
Body Language, Florida State University, Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee, FL, curated by Judith Page & Adam Strauss (catalogue)
In This Time and Place, College Art Gallery, SUNY at New Paltz, NY
Women Artists, Douglas College, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ (catalogue)
ARS 95 Helsinki, Museum of Contemporary Art/Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki, Finland (catalogue)
1995
Insight, David Beitzel Gallery, New York, NY
Object Lessons: Feminine Dialogues with the Surreal, Mass College of Art, Boston, MA (catalogue)
Kunstkabinett, curated by Sean Ellwood, Center of Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA
Nothing Overlooked: Women Painting Still Life, Contemporary Realist Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Domestic Disturbance, Delta Axis, curated by Allan Frame & Katherine Herndon, Memphis, TN
New Forms, Cape Museum of Fine Arts, Dennis, MA, curated by Ann Wilson Lloyd
1994
Bad Girls, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY (catalogue)
Pink Window, Art in General, New York, NY (catalogue)
Contemporary Still Life, curated by Laura Reuter, North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, ND
Evolutions, DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA
Sololoquies, Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington, MA
1993
1920, Exit Art/The First World, New York, NY
Update '93, White Columns, New York, NY (catalogue)
Songs of Retribution, curated by Nancy Spero, Richard Anderson Fine Arts, New York, NY
1992
Women & Surrealism, curated by Mary Jane Jacob, Women's Caucus for Art, Chicago, IL
Still Life Today, Scott Alan Fine Arts, New York, NY
1990
Brut 90, curated by Bill Arning, White Columns, New York, NY
Select Public Works
2018
OVERRIDE Chicago, Interlude at Hand, a Billboard Project, EXPO Chicago, Chicago, IL
2016
Cosmos, Albany International Airport, Albany, NY
2015
Botanicals Below Bryant Park, MTA Station, Bryant Park, New York, NY
2012
Gardens of Fort Hamilton, MTA Subway Commission, Arts for Transit, Fort Hamilton Parkway Station, Brooklyn, NY
Collections
21C International Contemporary Art Museum, Louisville, KY
ART in Embassies, U.S. Department of State, Arlington, VA
Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Lyndhurst, OH
Dimensional Fund Advisors, Austin, TX
Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO
NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, NY
MTA Art & Design, New York, NY
Museum of Sex, New York, NY
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Numerous Private Collections
Select Bibliography
2023
Bideaux, Kévin. “Marché au rose.” Rose: Une couleur aux prises avec le genre. Éditions Amsterdam, Paris, 2023, pp. 265, 286, 288, 289, and 293.
2019
Boetzkes, Amanda. "The Plastic Dilemma." Plastic Capitalism: Contemporary Art and the Drive to Waste, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2019, pp. 205-207.
2017
Crews, Caitlin. “Got a Girl Crush, ‘Portia Munson’,” Issue 6, 2017.
2016
Gorky’s Granddaughter. Portia Munson, July 2016, 2016. Video Interview, 22:00 mins.
2015
Elvin, George. “Post – Petroleum Design,” Routledge, New York, NY, 2015.
2014
Bloodworth, S. & Ayres, W. “NY’s Underground Art Museum: MTA Arts & Design,” Monacelli Press, 2014.
Coultas, Brenda. “The Tatters,” Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, CT, 2014.
2012
“Oppenheimer Collection,” James Printing Company, Kansas City, MO, 2012.
2006
Edited by Nemitz, Barbara. “Pink: The Exposed Color in Contemporary Art & Culture,” Hatja Cantz, NY, 2006.
2002
“Artist to Artist: A Decade of The Space Program,” Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation, 2002.
1995
Blackwood, Michael. Reclaiming the Body: Feminist Art in America, 1995. Film, 58:00 mins.
1994
“Bad Girls,” The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY, 1994.
Portia Munson
Pink Project: Bedroom, 2011-ongoing
found pink plastic and synthetic objects along with salvaged pink bedroom furnishings
96 x 216 x 120 in.
243.8 x 548.6 x 304.8 cm
Installation View, Museum of Sex, 2023, Photo by Daniel Salemi
Portia Munson
Serving Tray #3, 2021
found figurines, string, rope, serving tray
13 x 26 x 16 ins.
33 x 66 x 40.6 cm
Portia Munson
Bound Angel, 2021
found figurines, lamps, candles, string & rope, wedding gowns as tablecloth, extension cords, oval table
192 x 68 x 66 ins.
487.7 x 172.7 x 167.6 cm
Portia Munson
Verdant Aftermath, 2011
pigmented ink on rag paper
43 x 55 ins.
109.2 x 139.7 cm
Edition of 3
Portia Munson
Pink Project: Table, 1994-2010
found plastic
29 1/2 x 96 x 160 ins.
74.9 x 243.8 x 406.4 cm
Portia Munson
The Garden, 1996
found/recycled manufactured, synthetic & plastic floral & garden related stuff along with salvaged floral bedroom furnishings
dimensions variable
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From Alice Neels’ hotly anticipated London retrospective, to Portia Munson’s famed pink bedroom in New York, we select the must-see exhibitions from around the world.
Over the years, the balance between feminist and ecological concerns has fluctuated in the work. Yet this triumphant show set her preoccupations with gender and commodification on equal footing.
Artist, feminist, environmentalist—these themes elegantly converge in her exhibition “Bound Angel” which examines, with perverse pleasure, the darker cultural implications of mass production, the fight for gender equality, and the mounting ecological crisis.
P·P·O·W is pleased to host a conversation between artist Portia Munson and Art Omi’s chief curator Sara O’Keeffe in conjunction with Munson’s current solo exhibitions Bound Angel at P·P·O·W and Flood at Art Omi. For over three decades, Munson has created maximal installations, sculptures, paintings, and digital prints using a vast accumulation of ready-made consumer products to decipher the latent cultural codes embedded in mass-produced items. This conversation will explore Munson’s visual examination of the impact of mass production on the formation of identity and its connections to the ongoing struggle for gender equality and the mounting ecological crisis.
Artist Portia Munson's recent solo show at PPOW Gallery takes on feminist aesthetics and if we have ultimately missed something.
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For her new show at P.P.O.W., Munson continues exploring issues of the commodification of femininity and consumerism’s role in our mounting ecological crisis with an all-white table piece, Bound Angel.
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While the early morning of this un-historic summer day was filled with white fog, the afternoon is embracing the lushness of the green, flickering countryside, the grey rural roads, and me, a slow country road driver on my way to Portia Munson’s studio, in the magic of the golden light.
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Inside the Benenson Center’s Newmark Gallery, a 15-foot-wide blue backyard swimming pool is filled, not with water, but with thousands of found plastic artifacts, organized by graduated shades of blue. The centerpiece of “Flood,” a new exhibit by artist Portia Munson, “Reflecting Pool” (2013) displays the detritus of the plastic era.
