Joan Brown at George Adams Gallery

Late Bay Area painter Joan Brown’s self-portrait at age 31 includes her dog and third husband (artist Gordon Cook) standing outside the San Francisco Opera House. Hovering on a sidewalk that recalls a conveyor belt and an inverted red carpet, Brown and her partner pause stiffly in an urban landscape curiously devoid of other people. (At George Adams Gallery in Chelsea).

Joan Brown, Gordon, Joan and Rufus in Front of S.F. Opera House, oil on canvas, 2 panels, 80 x 30 5/8 inches and 80 x 60 inches, 1969.

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Merrily Kerr

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)