The experience of curling up with a good book in a comfy chair isn’t what you might expect in Meredith James’ ‘Library,’ a standout in her show of delightfully strange sculpture at Jack Hanley Gallery. Stocked with blandly-colored, identical volumes, the miniature library set in a chair, feels more ominous than wonderful. A gallery handout suggests that James’ new work explores ‘things in various stages of disappearance or obsolescence,’ offering an uncertain future for the written word. (On view on the Lower East Side through Nov 10th).
Meredith James, Library, armchair, wood, acrylic paint, paper, 44 x 31.5 x 30 inches, 2019.
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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