Purple Nurple, Neil Bender @ Tempus

Neil Bender, "A Socialized Veneer"

A purple nurple is what used to be referred to as a "titty-twister". On the Tempus site, the work was described as: "... an all-oil, splattered and patterned investigation into situations, atmospheres, still-lifes, daydreams, and bodies all caught up in a thick, humid, and seductive flatness. The paintings take both pre-packaged and idiosyncratic fantasies and wring them through the ever-circular and perpetually fascinating limbo of pop culture, butting up against actual experience and the wonderfully soupy problems this presents --both as images and moralities." 

 In "A Socialized Veneer", there's what appears to be a pink cloud (with a flag planted on it) floating above a pedestal or free-standing classical period column. Abstract forms surround the column.

Neil Bender, "Pony you up"

In "Pony You Up" we see a pony-tailed figure in an argyle sweater apparently lying down, though in a vertical format. The figure is nude below the waist. Look closely, and she (?) appears to have soiled herself. There is what appears to be excrement around the anal cleft, and on the left cheek, a handprint in what seems to be excrement.

Neil Bender, "Looks Like"

Here we see legs in fishnet stockings, and a miasma if the flesh, complete with some striped black forms at the bottom. All of this can be construed as a commentary on aging, white guy desire and/or a literal carnival.







In spite of that opening salvo of a rant, Bender provides us with a key, a Rosetta stone of sorts.

Neil Bender, "The New World"

This is a collage titled "The New World". In it we see the flattened perspective, the pressed flesh, fishnet stockings, zebra-striped patterns and much more in the other eight paintings.

Congratulations to Neil Bender and Tracy Midulla Reller and Tempus for a curious show.

--- Luis