P·P·O·W is pleased to present fluorochiaroscuro, Michael Wilkinson’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. Known for his conceptual approach to artmaking and installation, this latest series of works develops the UK-based artist’s concern with still life painting. Combining the optical illusionism of trompe l’oeil with non-representational interventions associated with the readymade, Wilkinson renders ordinary subject matter stunningly enigmatic. Updating the still life genre for our contemporary age, Wilkinson explores its innate ties to ephemerality with a self-awareness that is at once playfully ambivalent and earnestly serious.

Wilkinson’s meticulously executed paintings distill the essence of fleeting reality within a deceptively simple format. To produce them, he begins by photographing a variety of motifs – bouquets of gladioli, twisting cherry blossom branches, a solitary green apple – each subject characterized, in part, by its unique shape and color. Wilkinson sets these…