Betty Tompkins

BHQFU, New York’s freest art school, is pleased to present Real Ersatz, an exhibition by Betty Tompkins and her first New York solo show since 2009. In her new body of work Tompkins plays with the idea of the real, the fake and the area in-between. Using both digital prints and paintings of the same image she explores the interaction that these different mediums have with each other. The exhibition will open a conversation between photorealism and technology as well as the experience of medium, scale and color in contemporary art.

Recognized for her exploration into sexuality and her controversial ‘Fuck’ paintings of the 1970s, this exhibition marks a new direction in Tompkins work whilst celebrating her as a transgressive icon.

Betty Tompkins’ work in the 1970s pioneered a confrontational (and controversial) investigation into sexuality that was considered publicly uncouth, especially for a female artist, and went largely under recognized. Her work was rediscovered in 2002 when it was exhibited in New York, instantly placing her in the canon of transgressive art and bad-girl icons. Since then, Tompkins has continued to unapologetically push the envelope and has incorporated digital production into her painting practice.