Mia Wilkinson: This Is Not Porn

PUBLIC Gallery is excited to present THIS IS NOT PORN, a solo exhibition of London based artist Mia Wilkinson. Wilkinson’s work creates a powerful yet witty statement about the way female identity is performed in media culture. This exhibition will present a series of new work from 2016 – 2018; each piece forms an unapologetic view of the female nude, engaging with alternative cultures to reveal a new way of looking at the female body.

Obtaining inspiration from niche-fetish online forums, pay per click member sites and social media accounts; Wilkinson explores these extreme body types and juxtaposes the female figures alongside one another in unsettling but playful narratives. Current sources include the bodies of female bodybuilders and SSBBW (Super-Sized Big, Beautiful Woman) - a term used to describe a very overweight woman who is paid to eat or sit on a person to satisfy erotic desires.

Handling the paint in a fast-paced vigour Wilkinson completes each painting in one sitting, depicting the figures with intense immediacy whilst still embracing the detailed nuances of the flesh. The female figures she depicts wrestle on the canvas in an orgy of drips and loaded excess paint:

‘Accidental properties created by applying wet on wet, prove just as important to my work; dripping from the nipples and nails and mouth and feet, that go in and out of the women enable a feeling of sensuality sprinkled with disgust’

Elements of the figures are scratched into or physically removed from the palette, creating provocative censors; while the genitalia, lips and nipples are often painted with a gestural neon shadow, highlighting these familiar yet still taboo elements.

Wilkinson paints the women with a dark humour, underlying serious social issues within a media culture. From the classical female nude in art history, to issues of gender hierarchies within the Western world; ideas surrounding the use of the body and how modern society values and manipulates it are prominent ideas from Wilkinson’s paintings. The figures she paints increasingly morph out of themselves to be exposed as bizarre avatars, uncertain of their sexual objectives or gender; yet all forms use the identity of their bodies as a commodity, something of vital relevance to Wilkinson’s practise.