P·P·O·W is pleased to present Stardust, an exhibition of historic work by Manuel Pardo (1952-2012). This presentation marks the gallery’s first show of Pardo’s work, and the artist’s first exhibition in New York in more than fifteen years. Bringing together works that span the artist’s career—from his early portraits investigating gender expression and sense of self, to his later series Mother and i in Technicolor and Stardust — the drawings and paintings on view evince a singular style that refigures glamor, gaudiness, and femininity as markers of strength, resilience, and agency.
Anchoring the exhibition is a selection of Pardo’s astonishingly intricate drawings from his Stardust series, 2003-2012. Due to his declining health in the early aughts, Pardo shifted his practice away from painting to focus on highly layered, glittering drawings of stylized female figures, which, in the artist’s words, “has become my life’s work.” These compositions—comprised exclusively of Gelly Roll Stardust pen ink on handmade paper — may appear simple in the exaggerated-quality of the subjects and the serial nature of the visual motifs, yet their ease belies the technical acumen required for their creation. Nodding to numerology, reoccurring digits peppered throughout the works variously indicate the birthdates of the artist, his partner Medardo, and his mother Gladys, to whom Pardo dedicated each Stardust drawing. Visualizing this adoration, Pardo crafted a world in which confidence and femininity are inextricable, surrounding each animated figure with creature comforts that Gladys could not access during her lifetime: cinched dresses, massive earrings, Chesterfield sofas, patterned curtains, and perfectly coifed hairdos.
This appreciation for ornament and decoration carries over to Pardo’s Designer Urns, on view in the back gallery. In response to the loss of so many loved ones due to AIDS in the late-80s and early-90s, Pardo created two-dimensional vessels embellished with flowers, polka-dots, ogees, and arabesque lines: one urn for each of his friends who died from the illness. Beautiful in their form, these works moreover function as defiant testaments to the larger-than-life personalities of the individuals they honor. Shown alongside Pardo’s painted portraits from the mid-80s, these works demonstrate a lifelong investigation into the totemic power of flamboyance, where an arched brow and painted lid are heralded as forms of power and protection.
