Betty Tompkins "Sex Works / WOMEN Words, Phrases, and Stories" @ Gavlak Gallery in Los Angeles

Gavlak Los Angeles presents Sex Works / WOMEN Words, Phrases, and Stories, Betty Tompkins’ second solo exhibition with the gallery and her first in Los Angeles. This exhibition includes Betty’s recent series of WOMEN Words paintings, along with a survey of her early works on paper, and large-scale Cunt, Fuck, and Pussy paintings. Sex Works / WOMEN Words, Phrases, and Stories put pieces from the beginning of Tompkins’ career in conversation with her most recent paintings, showcasing the artist’s trajectory from subtly political works to more overt statements. The exhibition will be on view until September 3, 2016 at Gavlak Los Angeles. photographs by Sara Clarken

Opening Vernissage for Betty Tomkins' "Women Words, Phrases, and Stories" @ The Flag Art Foundation

Betty Tompkins' exhibition Women Words, Phrases, and Stories marks the first comprehensive presentation of 1,000 intimately-scaled, hand-painted works, each of which features a word or words used to describe women. The language in the exhibition ranges from flirtatious to derogatory, and emanates from Tompkins's career-long commitment to challenge the representation of female identity, the politics of pleasure, and the role of sexuality in contemporary culture. Betty Tomkin's "Women Words, Phrases, and Stories" will be on view until May 14 at the Flag Art Foundation, 545 West 25th Street, New York. photographs by Scout Maceachron  

Betty Tompkins "REAL ERSATZ" @ FUG (Foundation University Gallery)

BHQFU, New York’s freest art school, presents 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. Real Ersatz will be on view until October 18, 2015 at FUG, 431 E 6th St, BSMT, New York, NY. photographs by Tenlie Mourning

'The Shell' @ Almine Rech Gallery In Paris

Inspired by Peter Schjeldahl’s quote that “Modern art history has ceased to represent a road traveled, and has come to seem an encircling panorama,” this exhibition gathers paintings (landscapes, portraits, shapes) by nearly twenty international artists from different generations, from Bridget Riley to Christian Rosa. Their artistic commitment harks back to some various eras when choosing a discipline –visual arts – didn’t carry the same promises or contingencies. The Shell will be on view until February 14, at Almine Rech Gallery in Paris.