Hilary Harkness @ PPOW, NYC

A Critical Review

It’s kind of hard to just bellyflop right into the deep pool of content going on in these works without first calling attention to the skill and master craftsmanship displayed in Hillary Harkness’ technique. The surfaces are meticulous and, if it appears to have taken years of painstakingly slow work to accomplish the various effects, that’s probably because it did. This body of work took 10 years to complete culminating in Harkness’ first show at PPOW and her first solo show in over a decade. As you move through the room there is a noticeable evolution in the manner of rendering from one painting to another. It begins very Winslow Homer but by the time you curl around the room to the back wall of the gallery, the trees and foliage appear to be inspired by dazzlingly strange AI generated imagery. There’s just a hint of that though and for the most part they all seem deeply steeped in 19th century American realism. 

Once your eyes have stopped glazing over, there’s some serious comedy going on in this show. Perhaps it needs a bit of that because beyond the suggestively comical arrangement of figures lies a seriously deep exploration of the sort of power struggles inherent in sex, race, and class systems. Power struggles that remain unresolved today. So, maybe it’s the old spoon full of sugar to make the medicine go down trick. Whatever the recipe, it sticks. While tickling the funny bone, each work in its own way rouses the intellect. And that’s a rough ask, especially considering the context of the exhibition, which is the American Civil war and the following early reconstructionist period of the late 1800’s.

While all the models in all of the paintings look like they were taken directly out of central casting for the Netflix period piece “Bridgerton”, the artist is clearly manipulating the figural compositions to wrestle with our preconceived notions of queer identity and directly addressing both racial and gender reversals. In one of the works there’s a bunch of naked dudes doing the dirty in the woods while another man masturbates in the background. Up front a fully clothed Union Soldier takes a load off and leans gingerly up against a tree to watch a third naked man emerge from the forest swinging about the largest penis you can imagine without it being too cartoonish.

In the back rooms of PPOW the show continues with work from her earlier period. Those works deserve a review of their own but for now the show is on view through November 11. Go see it for yourself why don’t you.