Emotion and vulnerability continue to be strong themes in Jesper Just’s latest body of work at Perrotin Gallery on the Lower East Side. American Ballet Theater dancers lie and sit on the floor while receiving muscle therapy via patches applied to their skin. Though nearly motionless, this individual’s alert state and a single tear suggest powerful goings on beneath a calm exterior. Panels separated from the main display join blocks of concrete on the gallery floor in order to engage viewers more personally by forcing us to consider our own bodies in the gallery space and our own efforts at constructing meaning. (On view through Feb 15th).
Jesper Just, Corporealities – 1, LED panels, multi-channel video, sound, steel, and cement, 98 7/16 x 137 13/16 x 143 inches, 2020.
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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