Matthew Brandt, Bees of Bees 5 (detail), gum bichromate print with honeybees on paper, 2012.
Whether he’s burning trees to make charcoal or soaking a photograph of a lake in lake water to get an abstracted effect, Matthew Brandt uses his subject matter to create an image of that subject. When bee colony collapse led to his discovery of hundreds of dead or dying bees on the California coast, he collected the bees and photographed them in his studio, printing them with an emulsion made of the bees. The resulting prints are huge and swarming with bees (like the one in this detail), but chilling when a closer look reveals that they are in various states of decomposition. (At Yossi Milo Gallery through August 31, 2012).
Merrily Kerr is an art critic and writer based in New York. For more than 20 years, Merrily has published in international art magazines including Time Out New York, Art on Paper, Flash Art, Art Asia Pacific, Art Review, and Tema Celeste in addition to writing catalogue essays and guest lecturing. Merrily teaches art appreciation at Marymount Manhattan College and has taught for Cooper Union Continuing Education.
For more than a decade Merrily has crafted personalized tours of cultural discovery in New York's galleries and museums for individuals and groups, including corporate tours, collectors, artists, advertising agencies, and student groups from Texas Woman's University, Parsons School of Design, Chicago's Moody Institute, Cooper Union Continuing Education, Hunter College Continuing Education and other institutions. Merrily's tours have been featured in The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, Sydney Morning Herald and Philadelphia Magazine.
Merrily is licensed by New York City's Department of Consumer Affairs as a tour guide and is a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA USA)
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