LAST TIME I LOOKED, DISCOMFORT WAS NOT A MAJOR OFFENSE. IF I EMBARASSED ANYONE OR MADE THEM FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE, I AM TRULY SORRY. I DIDN’T MEAN TO. I ACKNOWLEDGE I HAVE A DIRTY MOUTH BUT WE’RE ALL ADULTS
Betty Tompkins (b. 1945) is an artist living and working in New York, NY, and Pleasant Mount, PA. For the last forty years, Betty Tompkins has based her paintings on the tension of intimacy and representation of sexuality, rendering explicit scenes in monochromatic tones. Her large-scale, hyper realistic figure paintings are made from erotic photographs and built layer by layer. Her work is not meant to arouse fantasy but to transpose light and shade, the effect of the process enveloping the scene in sfumato. Recent solo exhibitions include "Betty Tompkins," WAAP, Canada (2018); "Betty Tompkins," Ribordy Contemporary, Switzerland (2018); "Betty Tompkins," Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Belgium (2017); "Virgins," P.P.O.W, New York (2017).